SANJAY PINTO Vs. A KAMARAJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petition is filed under Section 482 of Criminal Procedure Code to call for the records in C. C. No. 370 of 2011 on the file of the XIII Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai.

(2.) The petitioners herein who are arrayed as A1 and A2 in the private complaint filed by the respondent herein in C. C. No. 370 of 2011 on the file of the XIII Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, Chennai has come forward with this petition to quash the proceedings. The complaint is filed for proceeding against the petitioners herein and one Shabbir Ahamed for the offence under Section 500 IPC alleging that the contents of live telecast in NDTV-Hindu channel on 15.10.2010 continuously and the live spot report given by the 3rd accused in 7.30pm news in NDTV about the raid held in the house of the defacto complainant is libelous in nature false, imaginary and concocted by the 3rd accused and the telecast of the same by all the accused is only with an intention of causing defamation to the complainant.

(3.) The facts remain undisputed are that the accused 1 to 3 are the Executive Editor, senior editor and correspondent of local news TV channel NDTV-Hindu respectively, while both the accused A1 and A2 are responsible for all the news telecast in the local news channel, A3 is responsible for field news collection. The 3rd accused was during October 2006 to 2008 employed as E-reporter in Nakkiran having the complainant as Associate Editor, during that time the complainant and A3 did not get along well with each other and there was some sort of misunderstanding and displeasure between the complainant and A3. Thereafter, the 3rd accused left Nakkiran publication and joined NDTVHindu as Chennai correspondent. While so, on 15.10.2010, there was raid held in the house of the complainant and that the raid went on from morning till evening. All the media person including 3rd accused were present with their respective camera and mike to collect field news and in the course of search, few documents were seized from the house of the complainant by the raiding party. While the raid was going on, A3 made live spot report and the same was telecast continuously as flash/scroll news. The live spot report of A3 was also telecast in 7.30pm news item.