New Delhi (ILNS): Following on the heels of the TRP scam, Republic TV and Arnab Goswami, Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV are now facing more flack, this time in the form of a defamation case, threatened through a legal notice, sent by filmmaker Sandeep Singh over the reportage of the Sushant Singh Rajput death case. The notice calls for an apology, plus carries a Rs 200 crore defamation suit threat.

Singh has sent a legal notice to the two entities, through his lawyer Rajesh Kumar of (R&R Law Associates), claiming that the TV channel has been “running/airing defamatory news items with criminal intent to extort money despite the fact that you were very well aware that my client and late Sushant Singh Rajput (Film Actor of Bollywood) were known to each other from the days of their struggle.”

The lawyer’s notice says: “My client received several messages from your correspondents / employees with the criminal intent and in order to extortion (sic), you had publicly demanded by client’s arrest and termed him as key conspirator and murderer. You the above noticees falsely imputing (sic) my client in TV debates almost every day without any cogent evidence and intentionally interfering in the investigation carried out…”

The notice also states: “I was informed by your one channel Officials (sic) that unless you consider to benefit financially our channel, the Noticee No. 2 shall keep airing such news items…”

The legal notice, prepared by Advocate Kumar, also states that “By this legal notice, you noticees are hereby called upon to drop, delete and remove all the malicious footage and articles.. and tender/release an unconditional public apology in writing/ video to my client…”

It also states that “Further, you are required to compensate my client to the tune of Rs 200 crores…”

-ILNS

Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court granted anticipatory bail to Sandeep Singh, personal secretary to Congress general secretary Priyanka Vadra, considering that Singh was just a messenger for a letter from the party offering 1,000 buses to transport stranded workers during the pandemic and ensuing lockdown.

The court held that it is undisputed that Singh had written a letter to the state government’s Additional Chief Secretary Avnish Awasthi, (but only) at the behest of (her employer) Priyanka Vadra.

The advance bail is till the filing of the police report.

The case is about the 1,000 buses on offer for plying migrant labourers from Ghaziabad-Noida borders. As it transpired, that papers of 150 of those vehicles were not in order. It was also found that of those 150, some were actually autos, three wheelers, ambulances, trucks etc. some of those vehicles had fitness certificates and other documents which were not valid.

The single bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh has said in its order that Congress General Secretary Priyanka Vadra has not been named in the FIR. Also, the sections imposed on Sandeep Singh are considered to be of mild nature. The bench, therefore, set the bail at Rs 1 lakh plus two sureties of the same amount. The bench also clarified that Singh’s anticipatory bail will remain in effect till the inquiry ends.

Senior advocates Vivek Tankha and Nadeem Murtaza debated on behalf of Sandeep Singh. They argued that Sandeep is being implicated only for political reasons. He sent the letter only at the behest of the Congress General Secretary.

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The Uttar Pradesh government had filed an FIR against Sandeep and Congress state president Ajay Lallu in the bus dispute. Lallu was arrested in this case and sent to jail. He was later granted bail. At the same time, Sandeep Singh requested the court for anticipatory bail to avoid arrest.

–   India Legal Bureau