Arnab Goswami has threatened to sue Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh for the second time as the Republic TV founder claimed to have exposed planted stories runb by certain newspapers. Goswami also warned newspapers such as Economic Times and Mid Day of consequences for publishing unverified claims about his channel without establishing the authenticity. This came days after Goswami launched a stunning attack against Salman Khan.
Goswami began his show by a long introduction as he said, “Viewers I am here tonight to tell you what that dead rat turned out to be. That Rs 32 lakh that Param Bir Singh said proves me to be a thief is actually part of a payment, par of a payment by a global bluechip company to Republic made through an advertising company called Hansa Vision, which has nothing to do with Hansa Research. Hansa Vision is an advertising company, part of the very reputed RK Swamy Group of Chennai. It buys advertising time on all channels.”
Goswami also read out a statement from Hansa Research denying the claims made in Economic Times and Mid-day. The Republic founder also said the press release by Hansa had destroyed the false claims made by Param Bir Singh.
Economic Times in its report had quoted sources as saying, “Hansa has made a payment of Rs 32 lakhs to Republic TV. When the company’s (Hansa) director was questioned on the same he claimed he wasn’t aware. However when Republic CFO, S Sundaram was questioned about it, he accepted that the company had received a payment of Rs 32 lakhs from Hansa but he couldn’t recall the details and would get back on the same,” said a senior police officer privy to the probe development. “Hansa is a vendor of BARC that installs bar-o-meters, the transaction prima facie seems to be of suspicious nature and hence the two companies have been questioned on the same and the transaction is being probed by the audit team.”
Mid-day had made similar claims quoting a senior official from the Mumbai Police as it reported, “Assistant Police Inspector Sachin Vaze, who is part of the SIT, said they have received a preliminary forensic audit report that shows a suspicious transaction of Rs 32 lakh between Hansa group and Republic TV.”
Goswami warned the publications to issue a clarification with apologies within 24 hours failing which he will initiate a legal case against them. A statement by Republic TV said, “We are hereby giving Mid-Day and Economic Times and the Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited 24 hours to issue an official public apology and corrigendum (in print, on digital platforms and across its official social media handles). Failure to do so shall and will result in legal action by Republic against them in 24 hours.”
Goswami also issued a similar warning to Param Bir Singh saying that the Mumbai Police commissioner would face a second legal notice from him if he did not issue an apology. The Republic TV founder said, “If the lying Mumbai Police Commissioner does not issue an official apology, I repeat an official apology for planting the fake news…then Param Bir Singh and the Mumbai Police by tomorrow morning, I will sue them a second time.”
Last week, Goswami had decided to file a defamation case against Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh claiming Rs. 200 crore in compensation for dragging the names of the controversial anchor and his media outlet, Republic TV, in the TRP scam. This came just a day after Goswami attacked Salman, calling him a senior citizen. In response, Salman had indirectly hit back at the famous TV anchor the second time in a row by mocking his yelling during the weekend episode of Bigg Boss.