The Karnataka police recklessly booked Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami in a fake news case to settle scores with him, the Karnataka High Court said, according to Bar and Bench.
Justice M Nagaprasanna made the observation while quashing a criminal case filed against Goswami last year on allegations that Republic TV aired a fake news report on then Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah, according to the report.
A complaint was filed by Karnataka Congress member Ravindra MV, who had alleged that Republic TV Kannada had aired a news report in March last year claiming that traffic in Bengaluru’s MG Road area was stopped to enable passage for Siddaramaiah. The chief minister was not in Bengaluru but in Mysuru, the complainant had said.
Goswami had moved the high court to quash the case. Senior advocate Aruna Shyam, appearing for Goswami, had reportedly told the court that the news report was deleted as soon as the channel realised it was incorrect, according to Bar and Bench.
The court had reportedly questioned the state on why Goswami had been booked in this case when he was not tied to the day-to-day affairs of Republic TV Kannada.
“Merely because the petitioner (Goswami) is a renowned name in the fourth estate, he is without rhyme and reason dragged into the web of crime, only to project registration of a crime against the petitioner, which on the face of it, is reckless,” the court said on February 13, according to Bar and Bench.
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