A day after Bollywood actors’ Sushant Singh Rajput’s shocking demise, Delhi-based lawyer has sent a legal notice of defamation to India Today chairman and editor-in-chief Aroon Purie on Monday, for their TV channel’s ‘insensitive’ coverage of the death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
The case was filed by a practising advocate from Delhi High Court, Mohit Singh.
On Sunday, 34-year-old Sushant Singh Rajput of MS Dhoni: An Untold Story fame, died by suicide at his home in Bandra, Mumbai. In the film, which was a biopic of the former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sushant played the role of Dhoni.
While reporting the news about the actor’s shocking demise, Hindi news channel Aaj Tak, which belongs to the India Today group, had flashed a news ticker which allegedly read: “How did he ‘hit wicket’?” alluding to his role as Dhoni.
#ShameOnAajTak | This is not Journalism. It’s just a bunch of vultures at work! pic.twitter.com/cuS2UGMAqc
— An Open Letter ? (@AnOpenLetter001) June 14, 2020
#ShameOnAajTak
This is not the first time media is spreading this shitt..Just to gain some TRPs stop making jokes of someone’s life.. pic.twitter.com/oKO6PHoMx9
— Adarshh? (@useless_boiii) June 14, 2020
The lawyer has asked the India Today group to issue an unconditional apology for their coverage of the actor’s death, failing which he would take legal action against them.
“The said apology should include that you take full responsibility of the mistake committed by your channel and the news of suicide is a mere comment by the police and that the post-mortem report is awaited,” the notice reads.
After this, both TV networks faced severe flak from Twitter users for the insensitive reportage, with #ShameOnAajTak and #ShameOnZee News trending on Twitter.
Journalist Deepak Chaurasia served legal notice for spreading motivated fake news
