On 4 August 2017, the Delhi High Court came down strongly on Republic TV, asking them to respect Congress MP Shashi Tharoor’s “right to silence” in relation to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.
The Court was hearing a fresh application by Tharoor, as part of his defamation suit against Arnab Goswami and his channel for reporting the death of his wife as a murder. Justice Manmohan issued a notice to Goswami and Republic TV over Tharoor’s allegation that they were continuing to defame and malign him, in contravention of assurances given by their lawyers at the previous hearing in the case.
The Court’s direction to respect the Kerala MP’s silence comes soon after videos emerged showing Republic TV’s journalist hounding Tharoor after a press conference a day earlier on 3 August 2017.