Taking strong objection to remarks about her on a YouTube channel, Shiv Sena (UBT) spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi on Monday said that she will file a police complaint and a defamation case.
Party leader Aaditya Thackeray also said that his party will take legal action over certain news channels presenting a “fraud named Sanjay Gupta” as a spokesperson or supporter of the party.
Gupta had made the controversial remarks while speaking to VK News editor-in-chief Sunil Raut. After a question by Raut about a leader’s allegations against Chaturvedi, Gupta seemed to suggest that the Sena (UBT) spokesperson had “bedroom access” to the party’s top leadership due to “personal ties”.
The video was headlined “Sanjay Raut nahin Priyanka Chaturvedi hai gaddaar. Shiv Sena UBT neta ka bada khulaasa”. (It is not Sanjay Raut but Priyanka Chaturvedi who is a traitor. A big revelation by Shiv Sena UBT leader.) It was posted last week and now has over 3 lakh views.
Gupta, who describes himself as a politician, political analyst and former Shiv Sena spokesperson, has previously appeared on debates on several mainstream news channels, some of whom identified him as a Sena (UBT) leader.
After the controversy, he posted pictures on X to assert that he had been a Sena spokesperson before. He also said that he had participated in thousands of TV debates. “From today, I am neither a spokesperson nor a leader. I resign.”
Meanwhile, in her post on X on Monday, Priyanka Chaturvedi wrote, “Considering the news channels and YouTubers continue to give him a platform to spew rubbish, hope they realise they too are liable for defamation and fraud. Am going to be filing a formal police complaint and a defamation case for action to be taken on such platforms and the crook.”
Aaditya Thackeray posted, “A fraud named Sanjay Gupta goes on shows of a few desperate news channels that promote such filthy and sick mentality. Despite the party clarifying multiple times that the crook is not a spokesperson, and has nothing to do with the party, these selected channels call him on their shows as our ‘spokesperson’ or ‘supporter’. We will be taking legal action against this. It is shameful that a few YouTube channels and channels need such crooks for their own TRPs.”
Several others took strong objection to Gupta’s remarks.
VK News is operated by Dream Media Network Private Limited, which editor-in-chief Sunil Raut is a director of. He could not be reached for comment.
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