India Today journalist Rajdeep Sardesai and BJP spokesperson Shazia Ilmi. | @shaziailmi / X and Rajdeep Sardesai via Facebook
New Delhi: A of the Bharatiya Janata Party Shazia Ilmi filed a defamation complaint against journalist Rajdeep Sardesai at the Delhi High Court on Friday. The suit was related to a video that he released, in which she was accused of abusing an India Today video journalist, according to Bar and Bench.
On July 26, Ilmi was taking part in a discussion about the Agnipath project on the India Today news channel when the incident happened. She did, however, end the discussion abruptly, saying that Sardesai had deliberately silenced her microphone in order to censor her.
“Remember I have been on both the sides and know how to handle bullies like you,” she had said in a post on X referring to Sardesai on July 26. “By the way it doesn’t behove political propagandists masquerading as journalists to sermonise.”
Ilmi further claimed that the camera person continued filming her even after the event ended, in spite of her discomfort, mental and physical. Sardesai responded by posting a video on X on July 27 that showed Ilmi taking off her microphone and becoming angry with the India Today camera person for supposedly recording her, Scroll.in reported.
Ilmi could be seen in the video asking the video journalist to leave her house. The video of X refuting Ilmi's claims that she was muted throughout the debate was uploaded by Sardesai.
“If anything, I am too indulgent: the fader is lowered only to avoid crosstalk and noise on the show,” he said. “If you have a grouse with me or with an army general on the show, of course that’s your prerogative. And I respect that too. But for you to chuck the Mike and abuse our video journalist and throw him out of your house is just NOT done.”
According to Sardesai, the cameraman was simply carrying out his job, and "bad behaviour" has no excuse. The Delhi High Court's Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora ordered Sardesai and India Today to provide the full, unedited footage by Monday and scheduled a hearing for Tuesday. The order was given on Friday.
Ilmi's attorney, Natasha Garg, informed the judge that the video was still up on the internet and that people were still trolling and making derogatory comments about her. Ilmi has requested that the court order Sardesai's tweets to be made private until the matter is heard. But instead of issuing such an order, the court listed the matter for August 13.