NEW DELHI: Caught in the crosshairs of an industry-wide controversy, Arnab Goswami’s troubles show no signs of abating. In the latest, a top cop in the Mumbai police has lodged a defamation case against the Republic TV editor-in-chief and his wife before the Mumbai sessions court.
The complainant, deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Abhishek Trimukhe, has named Arnab Goswami, Samyabrata Goswami and Republic TV’s parent company ARG Outlier in the criminal complaint, reportedly for broadcasting defamatory content against the DCP and misrepresenting facts while reporting on the Sushant Singh Rajput case. Samyabrata is the senior executive editor at Republic TV.
DCP Abhishek Trimukhe of @MumbaiPolice files a #defamation case against #Arnab Goswami & his wife in Mumbai Sessions Court
via @jitendradixit pic.twitter.com/vEMkvIHePW
— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) February 3, 2021
It may be recalled that Trimukhe was one of the police officers investigating the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, and reportedly spoke to Rhea Chakraborty on several occasions with regards to the case.
Goswami and the Mumbai police have been at loggerheads for quite some time now. Led by the scribe and his team, Republic TV had gone hammer and tongs after the crime branch team probing the actor’s demise, accusing the cops of laxity in the investigation. The channel had also launched a high decibel campaign to get the case transferred to the CBI.
Meanwhile, Republic TV too has been serving legal notices left, right and centre over news coverage that it perceives to be defamatory of its main showrunner, Goswami, who is embroiled in the TRP manipulation scam. So far, Times Now anchor Navika Kumar, the Indian Express, the News Minute have had defamation suits filed against them. Goswami’s legal team had also sued Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh for Rs 200 crore in damages for hurting the newsman’s reputation and harming the network’s credibility.
Back in October 2020, former assistant commissioner of Mumbai police Iqbal Shaikh had filed a defamation suit against Goswami and ARG Outlier, alleging that the channel ran a sustained defamation campaign against Mumbai police for the latter’s probe in the TRP scam case.
