The accused deliberately published the video with the intent to harm the reputation of Rahul Gandhi, directly targeting the prestige of the Congress party and the Indian Youth Congress and causing distress to millions of supporters and workers.
“The tweets from the handle and its subsequent amplifications appear to be a well-crafted conspiracy initiated at the behest of Mr. Gandhi’s political opponents with the sole objective of lowering his reputation in the eyes of the citizens of our country. It appears to be an attempt at the behest of the divisive forces, which Mr. Gandhi continues to expose,” the complainant alleged.
Therefore, the complainant requested an immediate deletion of the defamatory video from all platforms, along with a telecast of an unconditional apology on the channel.
The channel on the other hand claimed that the anchor had not given any impression that Gandhi was convicted for a heinous offence. The anchor also denied having made any malicious statements about Gandhi or depicting him as a robbery accused.
It was also submitted by the channel that the fictional story depicted in the form of a video in the broadcast was not in reference to anyone including Rahul Gandhi.
Pertinently, Aaj Tak also highlighted the tweets put out by Priyanka Gandhi in which she had asked why Rahul Gandhi was being targeted while many others were not getting punished.
The whole point of the broadcast was to an extent based on what Priyanka Gandhi had tweeted, the channel contended.
Source: Barandbench
