NEW DELHI:On Friday, the Delhi High Court gave some relief to Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami in a case of IPR theft filed by Times of India group, but was petitioned by Congress leader and Thiruvanthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor who filed a defamation case against Goswami and his Republic.

Tharoor in the petition has claimed from Goswami damages and compensation of Rs 20 million (Rs 2 crore) for allegedly making defamatory remarks towards him while airing news on Republic TV relating to the death of his wife Sunanda Pushkar. The case would be taken up on Monday.      

According to a PTI report, Tharoor has also sought a direction from the high court to restrain the TV channel from broadcasting any show relating to the death of his wife till the investigation is completed by the Delhi Police.

While the news was broken by a TV news channel, Tharoor used the channel’s tweet on the development to confirm by tweeting: “Pleased to confirm this story. We filed today in Delhi High Court. Had enough of his campaign of calumny.”

The Congress leader, in his lawsuit, has made Goswami and Arg Outlier Media- Asianet News Private Limited, the company which owns Republic TV, as parties. The petition referred to the broadcasting of news items from 8 to 13 May 2017 when the TV channel claimed to air an expose connected to the death of Pushkar, PTI reported.

"It is not out of place to say that defendants (Goswami and TV channel) broadcast news reports and alleged expose' which were intended to lead the viewers to believe that the deceased was murdered either by plaintiff (Tharoor) or at the instance of the plaintiff.  Such a broadcast clearly has the potential of adversely impacting the ongoing investigation into the death of the deceased," PTI quoted sections of the plea in the high court.

However, Goswami seemed to remain unfazed on Friday. Via Republic TV’s Twitter handle he sent across his message on the civil defamation case to the world.

“The people of India know that Sunanda Pushkar was murdered and Republic TV has a right to investigate the case,” Goswami said in a tweet, adding in another emphatically: “Determined to pursue the truth in the Sunanda Pushkar murder case, despite Tharoor’s attempts to block us.”  

Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five star hotel in south Delhi under mysterious circumstances on the night of 17 January, 2014.

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