Mumbai, Feb 3: A deputy commissioner of police (DCP) in Mumbai on Wednesday filed a criminal defamation complaint against Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami for certain claims made during the coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput death case.
Goswami's lawyers claimed that the tweets referred to in the complaint filed by DCP Abhishek Trimukhe were from a fake Twitter account as their client "is not on social media".
Trimukhe's complaint, filed before the sessions court here, also named ARG Outlier Media Private Limited which owns Republic Media Network, and Goswami's wife, as she is one of its directors.
"There were some tweets which misrepresented Trimukhe.
He had written about it to the Maharashtra government. The state home department gave its sanction (to file a complaint)," a senior police official said.
The complaint has been filed under Indian Penal Code sections 499, 500 (defamation) and 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory).
Goswami made "grossly false", "malicious" and defamatory statements during the coverage of actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death by suicide last year, it claimed.
These defamatory statements were telecast on the channel Republic Bharat during a discussion about phone records of actor Rhea Chakraborty, Rajput's girlfriend, it said.
"The said defamatory attacks have been made with a singular view of assassinating his (Trimukhe's) official character and thereby...maliciously and deliberately causing undue humiliation of the Mumbai Police Department," the complaint said.
Goswami also tweeted the contents of the telecast to a larger audience, the complaint said.
A statement from Goswami's legal team said that "he is not on social media" and the tweets to which the complaint referred was a fake Twitter handle impersonating the journalist.
"On the other parts, the Republic Media Network will respond legally as per due process," it said.
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Pune, Jul 26 (PTI): Action will be taken against men who have fraudulently become part of the Maharashtra government's Ladki Bahin Yojana and money given to them under the scheme will be recovered, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said on Saturday.
His statement came amid reports that 14,000 men were beneficiaries of the scheme, under which women get Rs 1500 per month as aid subject to certain conditions, including annual family income.
The scheme started in August last year and is credited as one of the prime reasons for the spectacular victory of the BJP-led Mahayuti in the November 2024 assembly polls.
"Ladki Bahin scheme was launched to help poor women. There is absolutely no reason why men should be its beneficiaries. We will recover money given to them. If they do not cooperate, further action will be taken," Pawar told reporters.
"Some women employed with the government had also become beneficiaries but we removed their names. As we continue to review the scheme's working, we will keep removing such names," he added.