Senior Mumbai cop sues Arnab for defamation

A senior Mumbai police officer has sued Republic TV editor-inchief Arnab Goswami, his wife and ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd, the news channel’s parent, for criminal defamation, saying the news anchor had harmed his reputation in broadcasts and Twitter posts on the investigation into the June 2020 death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput. In the suit filed in the sessions court on Tuesday and made public on Wednesday, deputy commissioner of police Abhishek Trimukhe sought to prosecute Goswami and his wife under section 500 (punishment for defamation) and section 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) of IPC, and sought compensation for defamation. A statement put out by a legal adviser for Republic TV said the channel’s initial reading of the complaint was that the officer was referring to tweets from a fake Twitter handle impersonating as Goswami’s, and said it would respond legally, “as per due process”.