Congress MP Shashi Tharoor had filed a civil defamation suit against Arnab Goswami and newly-launched news channel Republic TV in the Delhi High Court. Tharoor has claimed damages and compensation of Rs 2 crore from the journalist and his channel for allegedly making defamatory remarks against him while broadcasting news, relating to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar.
Delhi High Court on Friday issued a new notice to Arnab Goswami and the news channel involved in the Sunanda Pushkar’s case after Tharoor alleged that they continued to engage in “defaming and maligning” him. Shashi Tharoor alleged that despite their counsel had assured the court during the hearing on 29 May that no names will be taken against Tharoor, Arnab and the news channel was defaming him.
Regarding this, the bench asked response from Arnab and his channel Republic TV and said that they will have to respect Tharoor’s right to silence.
Senior advocate Salman Khurshid representing Tharoor appealed to the court that it should issue orders to Arnab and his news channel to not to use names like ‘murder of Sunanda Pushkar’ as the death is still not proved to be a murder. Responding to this Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, appearing for Goswami and the channel, said they have only placed the actual evidence and the police report while broadcasting the news. Sethi added that Tharoor was not called a murderer by any of his clients during the broadcasting.
The next date for the hearing of the case is set to be on 16 Aug.