NEW DELHI: Even as the Delhi High Court did not restrain Republic TV in its investigation into the death of Sunanda Pushkar, it asked the channel head Arnab Goswami to respect Shashi Tharoor’s right to silence on the issue. A spokesperson meanwhile said it was “another big victory for Republic TV" as Tharoor failed to ‘gag’ the channel.

The court asked Goswami and his channel to file its reply on the Congress MP’s plea to refrain from “misreporting” his wife Sunanda Pushkar’s death, and asked them to respect his “right to silence”.

The court was hearing an application moved by Tharoor in his pending Rs-20 million defamation suit against Goswami and the channel for allegedly making defamatory remarks against him while airing news relating to the death of his wife. Tharoor alleged that they continued to engage in “defaming and maligning” him despite an assurance given in the court on 29 May by their counsel. The matter has now been fixed for 16 August 2017.

Tharoor's counsel Salman Khurshid submitted that the court must direct Goswami and the channel to not mention the expression “murder of Sunanda Pushkar”, as it is yet to be established by a competent court that her death was “murder”, to ensure the trial was not prejudiced.

Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, appearing for Goswami and the channel, said they have only placed the actual evidence and the police report while broadcasting the news. “We have not called him a murderer in any of the news broadcasts on the channel,” he said. The judge asked the counsel not to use names and said “they will have to abide by that.”

Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five-star hotel in south Delhi on the night of 17 January, 2014. The matter is under investigation. 

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