Republic TV editor-in-chief landed in fresh trouble on Wednesday after a deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in Mumbai filed a criminal defamation complaint against him over Republic Bharat’s coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
The complaint filed by DCP Abhishek Trimukhe also named ARG Outlier Media Private Limited which owns Republic Media Network, and Arnab Goswami's wife.
"There were some tweets which misrepresented Trimukhe. He had written about it to the Maharashtra government. The state home department gave its sanction (to file a complaint)," a senior police official said.
The complaint has been filed under Indian Penal Code sections 499, 500 (defamation) and 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory).
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Goswami made "grossly false", "malicious" and defamatory statements during the coverage of actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death by suicide last year, it claimed.
These defamatory statements were telecast on the channel Republic Bharat during a discussion about phone records of actor Rhea Chakraborty, Rajput's ex-girlfriend, it said.
"The said defamatory attacks have been made with a singular view of assassinating his (Trimukhe's) official character and thereby...maliciously and deliberately causing undue humiliation of the Mumbai Police Department," the complaint said.
Goswami also tweeted the contents of the telecast to a larger audience, the complaint said.
When contacted, Goswami's lawyer said they had not received any intimation about the court complaint yet.
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With PTI inputs
