This petition is ambitious in nature, said the Supreme Court
New Delhi:
On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to consider a statement filed by ARG Outlier Media Private Limited, owner of the Republic Media network, seeking protection for the group and its employees in the cases brought against them in Maharashtra.
The matter was brought before a court headed by Judge DY Chandrachud, who said the sentences in the petition were “all ambitious.”
“This request is ambitious in nature. You want the Maharashtra police to not arrest any employees and transfer the cases to CBI. You better withdraw this,” Judge Chandrachud told lead defender Milind Sathe, who appeared for ARG Outlier Media. .
Sathe told the court that they had filed the petition to prevent the Maharashtra police from “harassing” their media network, their editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and their employees.
“You have searched for all the relays and these cannot be included in a single petition,” the bank said, after which Sathe said it would withdraw the statement.
The superior court allowed Mr. Sathe to withdraw the petition freely to take the appropriate remedies available under the law.
In addition to seeking protection for the media group, Mr. Goswami and his employees, the petition said that the Maharashtra government should be prevented from “persecuting” them and that all FIRs filed against them are annulled or transferred to the IWC. .
The petitioner had also said that there should be a CBI investigation against the state and its police in the matter for bringing various cases against the media group and its employees.
He had also asked for instructions for the Maharashtra police not to arrest any editors or other members of the media group’s staff.
Mumbai police had recorded a case in the alleged Television Rating Points (TRP) tampering scam and Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had claimed that three channels, including Republic TV, had tampered with TRP.
ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd has denied these allegations.
The alleged fraud came to light when BARC, an organization that measures TRP, filed a complaint about it through Hansa Research Group Pvt Ltd, police had said.
In addition to this, there are other pending cases in Maharashtra against Mr. Goswami.
On November 27, the higher court had extended provisional bail for Mr. Goswami and two others for up to four weeks after the Bombay High Court decided their allegations to vacate an FIR in the 2018 suicide aiding case, saying that the judiciary must ensure that criminal law does not become a weapon for targeted harassment
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated channel.)
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