GAUTAM DEB Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Art. 227 of the Constitution of India praying for quashing the proceeding being complaint Case No. C/11922 of 2011 pending before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Calcutta.

(2.) The factual background leading to the presentation of this application in a nutshell is that the opposite party filed a petition of complaint before the learned Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Calcutta, alleging, inter alia, that on 16th April, 2011 petitioner/accused during his press conference made defamatory statement saying that "All India Trinamul Congress is spending 'black money' to the tune of if 100 crores to fund the Assembly elections and since March 25, the 22 Trinamul candidates have been given Rs. 15 lakhs each (amounting to nearly Rs. 34 crores).Such funds are ill-gotten and vouchers were burnt later on to destroy the evidence. Since one of the candidates for the ensuing Assembly election, namely, Upen Biswas did not accede to such proposal and is not involved with such illegal black money business, so the All India Trinamul Congress is trying to ensure that Upen Biswas loses the - Assembly seat. Furthermore, air conditioned rooms are being booked for Mamata Banerjee and her associates and they are travelling by helicopters but source of such income of the party remains undisclosed, thereby clearly indicating that the party deals in black money business. Mamata Banerjee has claimed that she has sold paintings to the tune of 2 crores but who has purchased such worthless and unappreciable paintings is unknown to anyone. Mamata Banerjee who claims herself to be a symbol of honesty and wears rubber slippers and All India Trinamul Congress leader Mukul Roy (the complainant herein) are responsible for the handling of the entire black money business that is being carried on. The other leaders of the party like Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Mukherjee and Somen Mitra are unaware of such black money dealings as Mamata Banerjee do not trust them and have no confidence on them." The press conference was made intentionally to harm the reputation of the opposite party/complainant and his party which was telecasted through a Bengali television channel, namely, '24 Ghanta' and thereby lowered the credit of the opposite party/complainant and his party in the estimation of the general people, fries and others. The said statement of the petitioner/accused were also published in the daily newspaper irrespective of the fact that the same were false and baseless and were made wilfully and deliberately with motive to lower the reputation of the opposite party/complainant.

(3.) On 26th April. 2011. the learned Magistrate passed an order taking cognizance and directed the issuance of summons upon the petitioner/accused. So this revisional application.