Delhi Court Summons Congress Leaders In Defamation, Forgery Case By Journalist Rajat Sharma

A Delhi Court yesterday summoned Congress leaders Ragini Nayak, Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh in a criminal defamation case filed by senior journalist Rajat Sharma. Sharma has accused the Congress leaders of defamation, forgery, creation and use of false electronic records in connection with a purportedly doctored video circulated on social media.Judicial Magistrate First Class Devanshi Janmeja of the Saket Courts found sufficient prima facie material to proceed against the Congress leaders under Sections 465, 469, 471, 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860. “It appears that the accused persons by their spoken and publications made on X , which were intended to be read, have made defamatory imputations against the complainant, knowing and intending to harm the reputation of the complainant,” the judge said while summoning the politicians for July 27.It is Sharma's case that by way of Press Conferences and social media, the Congress leaders made false and defamatory statements against him that he used derogatory and abusive language against Nayak during a live TV debate. Sharma alleged that the politicians uploaded a modified and tampered video with inserted text as containing the abusive word as caption which was not originally part of the live telecast imputing the same to have been said by him to Nayak.According to the complaint, Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh subsequently retweeted the video, endorsing the allegation and condemning Sharma, despite knowing that the video was manipulated. Sharma claimed that the tweets and subsequent press conferences led to widespread circulation of the false allegation, causing serious damage to his reputation as a journalist of over four decades. In an order passed yesterday, the judge said that the allegations prima facie seems to be defamatory and appear to be intending to harm the reputation of the journalist.The Court said that the backlash Sharma faced via comments and posts on social media platforms where he was called denigrating names, prima facie establishes that his reputation took a falling. It added that the offence of forgery and creation of false document and use thereof for purpose of defaming Sharma was also established since he established that the raw footage of the incident was never given to the Congress leaders. The Court said that the video posted by the politicians on X was created by recording of the live or otherwise telecasted footage of the show by India TV. “Complainant has sufficiently also established that accused persons had obtained the telecasted footage of the TV show on 04.06.2024 and superimposed the invective as a caption, stating through an explanatory text along with, that the same was uttered by the complainant against her,” the Court said. It that prima facie, the Congress leaders have acted in unison to tarnish the image of Sharma by projecting that he had uttered the invective against Nayak. Click here to read order

Delhi Court Summons Congress Leaders In Defamation, Forgery Case By Journalist Rajat Sharma

Nupur Thapliyal

Tags