Kannada channel Suvarna TV, part of Jupiter Capital Capital owned Republic TV Founder Rajeev Chandrasekhar has managed to obtain a stay on the stinging videos posted Cobrapost as part of its Operation 136 Part 2.
In the videos broadcast by Cobrapost, two senior executives of the media group owned by Chandrasekhar, who’s also a Rajya Sabha MP with the BJP, were seen agreeing to run pro-Hindutva campaign in exchange of money.
Operation 136 Part 2 expose by Cobrapost last week had caused an earthquake in the media fraternity as news consuming public were given to watch the dirty dealings involving top executives and owners of the Indian TV channels.
They included top news brands such as Times Group, India Today, ABP News and Karnataka’s Suvarna News channel owned by BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP and founder of Republic TV, Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
In a response to Janta Ka Reporter, Suvarna News rejected the charges made in the Cobrapost videos. The channel also added that they had become suspicious of the Cobrapost’s sting operation after the reporter’s first meeting and was waiting to lay the trap for him.
On Tuesday, the channel contacted Janta Ka Reporter asking us to remove the videos since a sessions court judge in Bengaluru had granted them an injunction. We’ve removed the links to YouTube videos since learning about the injunction.
Meanwhile, Cobrapost too decided to take down the videos, albeit temporarily.
Started a decade ago on 31 March 2008, the Kannada news and infotainment channel is owned by Chandrasekhar, who hogged the limelight last year when he helped Arnab Goswami set up his 24×7 news channel Republic TV as its main promoter. More recently, he was in news after video of him campaigning for the BJP in Karnataka went viral.
Before joining BJP formally only recently, Chandrasekhar has been twice an independent member of Rajya Sabha from Karnataka in 2006 and 2012. The BJP MP enjoys so much clout that he has been on the Parliament Standing Committee on Defence, Consultative Committee on Finance, Central Advisory Committee for the National Cadet Corps and Co-Chairman of the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee Bangalore Urban District, while in the past he has served as a member of the Select Committee on Real Estate and Select Committee on GST. Apart from Suvarna News, as part of Asianet News Network owned by his company Jupiter Capital, Chandrasekhar also owns Kannada Prabha, a vernacular daily. The fourth largest Kannada newspaper, Kannada Prabha was started on November 4, 1967 by the legendary Ramnath Goenka. With special editions simultaneously published from Bangalore, Shivamogga, Mangalore, Hubbali, Belagavi and Kalaburagi, the daily sells about 190,000 copies a day. Chandrasekhar bought a 51 percent stake in Kannada Prabha in 2011.