ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd, the company that runs the news channel, Republic TV, has filed a defamation complaint against Times Now’s Navika Kumar in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Patiala House, for making allegedly defamatory statements the channel in connection with the WhatsApp chats related to the TRP scam.
The complaint alleges that Navika Kumar, by “misusing”, “misconstruing” and “distorting” the documents from the Mumbai Police’s charge sheet in the TRP scam case, mainly the WhatsApp chats, had gone on a reckless spree to spew grossly defamatory material on her show without regard to the matter being sub judice.
It went on to say that Navika was jealous and lacked the ability to match the success of the complainant company, which was the reason why she aired the so-called defamatory show.
“The accused has falsely claimed that the complainant company was unauthorizedly privy to official secrets pertaining to the Balakot Air Strikes before the strikes actually took place on 26.02.2019, and further that the complainant company “leaked” such information. The accused has called the Editor-in-chief, a threat to national security on 18.01.2020,” the complaint states.
The complaint also says that Navika Kumar declared the channel guilty in a case where trial had not begun yet.
“This is the worst kind of prejudice because it is directly linked to her commercial interests as a senior employee of a rival channel”, the complaint adds.
“Navika Kumar on The Newshour on 18 January 2020 made rabid and unfounded claims accusing Republic Media Network’s founder of endangering national security and leaking state secrets thereby jeopardizing the goodwill of the Network and endangering the entire organization that was subsequently subject to attacks even from the Pakistan Government”, the complaint says.
This is, the plea states, not only an “utter fabrication of facts and an outright falsehood, but is also a defamatory statement made to a large universal audience in order to prejudice their mind, eclipse them from true facts and influence them through the wholly misleading broadcast.”
