Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Wednesday took to Twitter to announce that he has filed a criminal defamation suit against Republic TV before a magistrate court in Thiruvananthapuram.
He told Chief Judicial Magistrate PV Aneesh Kumar that news anchor and managing director of Republic TV, Arnab Goswami, had “deliberately sullied his image” to increase rating for the news channel, reported The Hindu.
When The Quint reached out to Tharoor, he said:
Because the matter is now sub judice I thought it best to restrict my stance to that one sentence.Shashi Tharoor
According to the report, Tharoor deposed how Goswami used “vilest language” and “unfairly linked” him to his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death in 2014, in a hotel suit in New Delhi.
He lied I had removed the body from one room to another. He lied I had come back to the hotel around the time of her death. He further lied that the CCTV cameras in the hotel were not working. Not only did he lie, he knew he was lying. For one, he ignored the hotel’s public statement in 2014 that the surveillance cameras were proper in order.Shashi Tharoor before CJM, according to The Hindu
He reportedly raised how the channel can insinuate his role in the murder when the New Delhi police has neither concluded investigation nor filed any charge against Tharoor or anyone else.
The defamation should be penalised to prevent those media persons who often act with impunity as police, judge and executioner, all rolled into one.Shashi Tharoor before CJM, according to The Hindu
The court will hear the case again on 20 July.
“Bring Down Rhetoric”
The MP from Thiruvananthapuram had also filed a civil defamation case in the Delhi High Court against Arnab Goswami, and Republic TV on 26 May.
Tharoor has claimed damages and compensation of Rs 2 crore from the news anchor and his channel for allegedly making defamatory remarks against him while airing news relating to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.
Bring down the rhetoric. You can put out your story, you can put out the facts. You cannot call him names. That is uncalled for.Justice Manmohan said while hearing the case
The High Court not only issued notices to both the channel and Goswami, but also sought their response to the allegation by 16 August, the date of next hearing.
The “Super Exclusive” That Started It All
On 8 May, Republic TV released a set of audio tapes alleging that Tharoor, along with his assistant Narayan, made deliberate attempts to stall Sunanda from talking to the media.
Throughout the coverage, the channel alleged that Tharoor’s lies have been “caught”.
Condemning the coverage, Tharoor took to social media, challenging Goswami to prove his “false claims in a court of law”.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)