The owners of the BCCL-owned English news channel, Times Now, have filed a criminal complaint against journalists, Arnab Goswami and Prema Sridevi for allegedly stealing materials while working with their channel. Goswami had aired the materials on his new channel, Republic TV.
The complaint was filed in the Azad Maidan Police Station in Mumbai.
BCCL has accused Goswami and Sridevi of theft, criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of property and infringement of Intellectual Property Right. BCCL pointed out that they aired two news reports on Republic TV, using materials which they had procured while working in Times Now. At Times Now, Goswami was the editor-in-chief and Sridevi, a reporter.
On the day of its launch on May 6, Republic TV had carried an expose on Rashtriya Janata Dal leader, Lalu Prasad Uadav’s alleged consultations with criminal-turned-politician, Mohammad Shahabuddin. They had aired the tape on the show as proof.
On May 8, Republic TV played taped conversations between Sridevi and late Sunanda Pushkar’s assistant to indicate that Congress leader Shashi Tharoor was involved in his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death.
“Mr. Arnab Goswami and Ms. Prema Sridevi have on Republic TV admitted and claimed that the audio conversation in the Sunanda Pushkar case aired on 8th May 2017 was in their possession for the last two years when they were in their previous organisation i.e. with Times Now,” BCCL said. The company also accused both of them for allegedly using the company’s intellectual property in their own interest.
