Mumbai court dismisses cop's defamation plea against Arnab Goswami

A sessions court here has dismissed a criminal defamation complaint filed by a Mumbai police officer against Republic TV editorinchief Arnab Goswami over certain claims made during the coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput death caseThe plea by Deputy Commissioner of Police DCP Abhishek Trimukhe was dismissed by the court on April 1 but a detailed order was made available on ThursdayTrimukhes complaint had also named ARG Outlier Media Pvt Ltd which owns Republic Media Network and Goswamis wife who is a director in the companyThe complainant had alleged that there were some tweets by Goswami and others which misrepresented himAdditional sessions judge Uday Padwad found that Trimukhes complaint was not in conformity with the mandatory requirement of section 199 2of the CrPC for the court to take cognisanceAs per provisions of 1992 of the CrPC any offence falling under Chapter XXI of the Indian Penal Code 45 of 1860 is alleged to have been committed against a public servant in connection with the discharge of his public functions a court of session may take cognisance of such offence upon a written complaint by a public prosecutorUpon perusal of the complaint submissions made before the court the judge noted the complaint in this case was filed by the DCP himself and not through a public prosecutorThe judge however said the complainant can take his grievances to a magistrate courtIt is not that the aggrieved public servant against whom the said offence is alleged to have been committed has no forum to take his grievances to He has the remedy to make a complaint before the competent magistrate the court saidHis filing of the complaint even through the public prosecutor however would not confer any jurisdiction on this court to take cognizance of the alleged offence it addedThe DCP had filed the complaint in February under Indian Penal Code sections 499 500 defamation and 501 printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory Goswami made grossly false malicious and defamatory statements during the coverage of actor Rajputs death in June last year the police officer had claimedThe 34yearold Bollywood actor was found dead in his apartment in suburban BandraThese defamatory statements were telecast on the channel Republic Bharat during a discussion about phone records of actor Rhea Chakraborty Rajputs girlfriend the complaint saidThe said defamatory attacks have been made with a singular view of assassinating his Trimukhes official character and therebymaliciously and deliberately causing undue humiliation of the Mumbai Police Department the complaint had said Goswami also tweeted the contents of the telecast to a larger audience the complaint saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever