Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has filed a civil defamation suit against Arnab Goswami and newly-launched news channel Republic TV in the Delhi High Court. He has claimed damages and compensation of Rs 2 crore for allegedly making defamatory remarks towards him and holding him responsible for the death of his wife, Sunanda Pushkar.
Tharoor has also appealed the High Court to restrain the TV channel from broadcasting any show relating to the death of his wife till the investigation is completed by the Delhi police. He filed the suit on the bases of the broadcasting of news items from 8 to 13 May when the TV channel claimed to telecast an expose connected to the death of his wife. Tharoor’s advocates Muhammad Ali Khan and Gaurav Gupta, accused Arnab and Republic TV for deliberately broadcasting the news item in a way that created a non existing controversy, attacking the public life and public image of Shashi Tharoor. They further said that the telecast were intended to lead the viewers to believe that Sunanda Pushkar was murdered either by the Tharoor or at his instance.
Responding to the suit, Arnab Goswami said that, why is Tharoor trying to stop his channel from finding out the truth in the Sunanda Pushkar case. Instead he should be supporting the channel in investigating to find the real culprit.
Tharoor said that, police is examining the matter and has also files an FIR.
Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five-star hotel in South Delhi on the night of 17 January, 2014.