By Ayesha Siddiqua
The ongoing TRP war witnesses another legal notice filed by Republic Tv’s parent company ARG Outlier Media filed a defamation suit against Times Now anchor Navika Kumar.
The plea filed by Republic TV alleges that Kumar made “reckless” and “grossly defamatory” statements during her show, Newshour, on January 18th.
The petition added: “By misusing, misconstruing and distorting the documents from the Mumbai Police’s chargesheet in the TRP Scam, mainly the WhatsApp Chats, and without regard to the matter being sub judice both before the lower courts at Mumbai and the Hon’ble Bombay High Court, the Accused Person has gone on a reckless spree to spew grossly defamatory material mentioned below that has been telecast, published, circulated and disseminated on the TV Channel Times Now as well as the internet in various portal such as the YouTube.” – Republic Tv
Earlier this week, the Republic TV had served a legal notice to “The Indian Express” for an article that reported that the former CEO of Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) Partho Dasgupta claimed in a hand written statement to the Mumbai Police that he received a bribeof US$12000 and Rs. 40 lakhs over a period of 3 years from Republic Tv , to manipulate television ratingns.
Dasgupta’s statement were recorded in the office of Crime Intelligence Unit in the presence of two witnesses on December 27 2020.
Mumbai Police had filed a 3600 page supplementary chargesheet that also included a BARC forensic audit repot, Whatsapp chats between Dasgupta and Goswami, statements of 59 people including former council employees and cable operators.
