Arnab Goswami apologizes in contempt case by former TERI chief in Delhi high court
New Delhi: Arnab Goswami, the Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of Republic TV, has issued an unconditional apology before the Delhi High Court in a 2016 contempt case filed against him and others by former Executive Vice Chairman of TERI, R.K. Pachauri, reported LiveLaw.in. The case was filed against Goswami and others for allegedly disobeying the court's earlier orders that restricted them from publishing certain claims against Pachauri.
According to the report, in his affidavit submitted to the court on April 28, Goswami apologized and requested the court to accept his apology and close the ongoing proceedings against him. He emphasized that he is a law-abiding citizen who holds the courts in high esteem and has the utmost respect for the Delhi High Court.
Goswami stated that he had no intention to willfully disobey the court's orders and believed that the alleged broadcasts were not prohibited based on the court's previous order in C.S. (OS) 425 of 2015. He argued that the broadcasts were made in good faith as part of fair reporting, exercising his freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution.
Goswami's response was filed through Advocate Aman Avinav. His counsel, Senior Advocate Malvika Trivedi, had previously informed the court on April 17 that an affidavit tendering an unconditional apology would be filed within a week.
During the proceedings on April 29 before Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora, Trivedi submitted a copy of the affidavit to the court. It was also mentioned that Raghav Ohri, representing another party in the case, had filed a similar affidavit tendering an unconditional apology without delving into the merits of the allegations.
The court, however, has not yet uploaded the order of the proceedings on its website. The status of the case indicates that it has been disposed of.
R.K. Pachauri, who passed away in 2020, had filed the plea claiming that the media houses, including Goswami's previous employer Times Now, were in contempt of two court orders that required adherence to "journalistic norms" in reporting about the proceedings of an inquiry against him. The plea argued that the media houses were prohibited from publishing any news report, article, or opinion regarding the allegations of sexual harassment against Pachauri. In addition to Goswami, the plea was also filed against Bennet & Coleman, The Economic Times, Raghav Ohri, and Prannoy Roy.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
BharatPe fraud case: Delhi HC quashes lookout circular against Ashneer Grover, wife
New Delhi, Nov 12: The Delhi High Court has ordered cancellation of a lookout circular (LOC) issued against Ashneer Grover, the former MD of payment app BharatPe, and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover, noting that the FIR lodged against them over allegations of cheating and forgery has already been quashed.
Justice Sanjeev Narula passed the order on Monday after the court was informed that another bench of the high court quashed the FIR on the same day.
The FIR was quashed by Justice Chandra Dhari Singh after considering a plea moved by the Grovers stating that they have arrived at a settlement with the fintech company.
In his order, Justice Narula said, "Although the copy of the order (quashing the FIR) is not available as of now, the aforenoted fact is not disputed by the counsel for the parties.
"In light of the fact that the underlying FIR has been quashed, the LOC issued by respondent No. 3 (Bureau of Immigration), in the opinion of the court, will not survive."
The LOC was issued by the Bureau of Immigration at the instance of Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in view of the investigation against the Grovers in the cheating and forgery FIR.
The court was hearing a plea moved by Grover and his wife Madhuri Jain Grover seeking quashing of the LOC issued against them in connection with the investigation into the cheating and forgery case.
"Accordingly, the present petitions are disposed of with a direction to the respondents to cancel the LOC against the petitioners in their records," the court noted.
Earlier, the Grovers claimed that they were informed about the LOC for the first time when they were detained at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here on November 16, 2023, while they were scheduled to travel to the US.
After being detained, they were informed that the LOC was operational from November 6, 2023.
In May last year, the EOW filed an FIR against Grover, his wife Madhuri, and others under eight sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 and 468 (forgery), and 471 (using forged documents as genuine) for an alleged Rs 81 crore fraud after a complaint was lodged by BhartPe, the fintech unicorn.
In its complaint, BharatPe alleged that Grover and his family caused damages to the tune of Rs 81.3 crore through illegitimate payments to bogus human resource consultants, inflated and undue payments through pass-through vendors connected to the accused, sham transactions in input tax credit and payment of penalty to GST authorities, illegal payment to travel agencies, forged invoices by Madhuri, and destruction of evidence.
Madhuri was the head of controls at BharatPe before she was fired in 2022 after a forensic audit revealed several irregularities.
Subsequently, Grover resigned as the chief executive officer of the fintech firm in March 2022.
