Mumbai Police register FIR against Republic TV editorial team for defamation
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Mumbai: Mumbai Police has named editorial team members of Republic TV as accused in the FIR for allegedly broadcasting defamatory content that aimed to incite disaffection amongst the police.
The FIR filed by Special Branch-1 of the Mumbai Police includes Republic TV's top level editorial team members including of Executive Editor Niranjan Narayana swamy, Senior Associate Editor,Anchor Shivani Gupta, Deputy News Editor Sagarika Mitra and Deputy Editor Shawan Sen.
The complainant, who is a police officer from the social media monitoring wing, refers to the "Biggest Story Tonight" show in which it was claimed that the police force was rebelling against orders given by Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh. Citing the Police (Incitement to Disaffection) Act 1922, the FIR mentions a deliberate and calculated effort to stoke disaffection in the force.
Republic TV has responded strongly with a statement terming the actions of Mumbai Police as a "threat to democracy".
"Filing of an FIR under a harsh and severe law is a drastic and desperate measure against both the media as well as the common citizens at large," the channel said.
In the broadcast, the channel had alleged that the recent TRP scam case was part of a scheme concocted by the Mumbai Police Commissioner who was "hell-bent on tarnishing the image" of Republic TV and that senior police officers had revealed this information.
Republic TV has alleged that it's executive editor was threatened to reveal sources under police questioning during the TRP scam investigations and that police are coercing witnesses in the case.
For the duration of this controversy the channel has maintained its stance that the police is exacting revenge for exposing mistakes made during the Sushant Singh Rajput investigations.
As part of the TRP scam case which broke earlier this month, senior Republic TV officials have been called in for questioning, with Arnab Goswami set to appear for questioning today.