Channel files plaint on fake chats linked to SSR death case

Noida: A Hindi news channel has lodged a complaint against a social media handle for posts intended to malign its reputation, prompting Noida police to lodge two cases, the other one relating to alleged misuse of the channel’s logo online.
India TV filed the complaint against a Twitter user by the name “arnabofficial17”, alleging it spread a “fake WhatsApp chat” between a doctor associated with the Sushant Singh Rajput case and the media company’s chairman. The Twitter handle is a parody account, not to be confused with the Republic TV’s editor-in-chief.
The FIR has been lodged against the Twitter user under IPC section 420 (cheating) and sections 60 and 63 of the Copyright Act. India TV has alleged that on October 4, the channel and its employees first became aware of the WhatsApp message, which was seemingly a screenshot of a chat. “It seemed to be a purported conversation between the chairman of the channel and Dr Sudhir Gupta (AIIMS doctor heading the forensic team formed by CBI in the Sushant case). But, the truth is that the screenshot is fake and misleading. Neither any such conversation has taken place between the two nor does this pertain to truth. But this act is aimed to malign the chairman and an attempt to spread false news,” said the complaint. Asserting that the fake news seems to be a “big conspiracy” to influence the CBI investigation, the complaint adds that in their internal probe, India TV found that the message possibly started from the account @arnabofficial17. ... it is clear that in the garb of satire and for one’s personal benefit, the account is continuously spreading fake news and messages. Through this, it wants to spread confusion in the probe in the Sushant Singh case and mislead the same,” reads the FIR based on the complaint of channel DGM (HR and legal). In the second FIR lodged under sections of the IT Act, the channel has alleged that its logo has been used on YouTube and Twitter in a wrong manner and some tweets and videos have been shared from it.
Additional DCP Ankur Aggarwal said the FIRs have been lodged at the Phase II police station. Ritika Talwar, legal counsel for India TV, said, “Since the chats were fake, the source of the same was checked and it was found they were spread by a Twitter account by the name of Arnab Goswami, which was a parody account. But since the chat pertained to an ongoing investigation..., it could hamper the investigation and harm the channel’s reputation...”