Karnataka HC stays probe against Arnab, Malviya over reports on ‘Congress office in Turkey’
FIR was filed against Arnab Goswami and Amit Malviya over allegations of spreading misinformation claiming that the Indian National Congress (INC) had an office building in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Karnataka high court on Thursday stayed further investigation against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) IT Cell head Amit Malviya and Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami following a first information report (FIR) filed against them over allegations of spreading misinformation claiming that the Indian National Congress (INC) had an office building in Istanbul, Turkey.
Vacation judge justice S Rachaiah passed the order while hearing petitions filed by Malviya and Goswami seeking to quash the criminal proceedings initiated against them under section 192 and 352 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for the offences of provocation with intent to cause riot and intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, respectively.
Malviya was also booked separately in a second FIR for posting an image of a face, half of which was that of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the other half was that of Pakistani Army chief Asim Munir with a caption alluding to whether Gandhi was echoing Pakistan’s narrative on Operation Sindoor. The court stayed proceedings against him in the above case as well.
Earlier this week, Republic news ran a segment implying that the Istanbul Congress Center convention hall was an office of the Congress.
Malviya later reposted a clip by Republic Digital that showed the Istanbul Congress Center while Goswami asked “did you know viewers, the Congress party has a registered office in Turkey?”
Soon after, INC registered multiple complaints against both of them.
The complaint in Bengaluru against Goswami and Malviya was filed by Indian Youth Congress legal cell head Shrikant Swaroop, accusing them of “masterminding a criminally motivated campaign” to mislead the public into believing that the Istanbul Congress Centre is the INC’s international office.
Appearing for Goswami, senior advocate Arun Shyam argued that the claims made on Republic TV were opinion-based, questioning why a national political party would have an office in a country like Turkey, which has taken anti-India positions. Shyam added that an incorrect image was used inadvertently on Republic’s digital platform after the broadcast and that a prompt corrigendum was issued.
The state’s counsel told the court that the accused had only been served notices seeking their cooperation with the probe, and that the state had no intention of arresting them. He urged the court therefore, to allow the investigation to go on.
The high court however, rejected the state’s request. It issued notices to the police and granted the interim stay order protecting both Goswami and Malviya.
On May 20, before the said FIR was registered, Republic TV had published a corrigendum over publishing of the said image. The corrigendum stated that an incorrect image had been inadvertently used by a video editor on its digital desk, depicting a building as the Congress office in Turkey. The error was inadvertent and technical, the channel claimed.
Shyam too reiterated before the court that the image for the digital version of the disputed content had been used inadvertently by a video editor.
