Arnab Goswami responded to his former employer Times Now’s criminal complaint of copyright infringement regarding the tapes used in the Sunanda Pushkar exposé, as well as the Lalu Prasad expose undertaken by Goswami’s new venture Republic TV.
Aditya Raj Kaul, Associate Editor at Republic TV, tweeted Goswami’s statement.
Goswami’s statement reads:
Interesting to see them get so nervous. I think they instinctively know that they have lost their audience. It’s amusing to see them get paranoid. Goliath is drawn to his knees, crying. They can’t handle the fact that despite all their money, they have lost the battle to a group of new age journalists.
Post the news channel’s latest ‘exposé’ on Sunanda Pushkar’s mysterious death, Times Now had filed a criminal case against Goswami and journalist Prema Sridevi for copyright infringement as per an Economic Times report.
Sources state that Times Now has alleged that the audio tapes played during the Sunanda Pushkar story and the earlier Lalu Prasad controversy on Republic TV were ‘procured and accessed’ by Goswami and Sridevi while they were employed by Times Now.
The complaint alleges copyright infringement, violation of trust and theft of property as per the report.
The complaint states that Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd (BCCL) has set up an internal inquiry into the matter, establishing the fact that the audio tapes were indeed procured by Goswami and Sridevi while they were still working with Times Now. The complaint also states that while airing the story on 8 May on Republic TV, Goswami and Sridevi had admitted that the audio tapes had been in their possession for the past two years.
BCCL has alleged that both Goswami and Sridevi used the tapes ‘wilfully and deliberately’ for their gain which amounts to criminal expropriation of property.
An FIR against Goswami and Sridevi has been filed under Sections 378, 379, 403, 405, 406, 409, 411, 414 and 418 under the Indian Penal Code and under Sections 66-B, 72 and 72-A of the IT Act, 2000 as per the report.
Arnab Goswami, who recently started his own media venture Republic TV, was serving as Editor-In-Chief of the English news channel Times Now.
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