Janjivan Bureau / NEW DELHI : Jama Masjid Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari has sent a Legal Notice to Arnab Goswami’s ‘Republic’ TV for Running what he called ‘False and malicious’ Story about the historic mosque.
Bukhari claimed that the story run by ‘Republic’ recently was false, baseless, defamatory and malicious and was done to defame him and Jama Masjid as the power of mosque was never cut by the electric supply department.
Bukhari in a strong-worded legal notice to the channel’s promoters and editor Arnab Goswami asked them to tender unconditional apology, and to remove the content of the story from the channel’s website within 15 days. He warned the channel of defamation case, if it fails to comply with the notice.
Under the caption, “Power cut at Jama Masjid”, the channel on August 30, 2017, had repeatedly aired the story that ‘because of non-payments of bills, Jama Masjid’s power was snapped by the Delhi Electricity Department”. The channel also tweeted this on its official Twitter handle the same day “Imam Bukhari has money to buy luxurious cars but can’t pay electricity bills?”
Bukhari ahmedBukhari said he was shocked to see the false and baseless news report being telecast on Republic TV under the caption, “Power cut at Jama Masjid”. “I came to know from my acquaintances that Republic TV has been telecasting a report regarding me and the Jama Masjid. I see a design in it as it was telecast on the very day when the supporters of Baba Gurmeet Singh alias Ram Rahim had unleashed a reign of terror after he was convicted by a special court on rape charges,” he said.
The notice stated: “It was expected that as an organization having a wide broadcast television news channel audience, you should have verified the facts before embarking upon such unprofessional and irresponsible statements which are nothing but intended to defame our client. The aforementioned news report is not only a glaring case of false and fake reporting but has also been telecast with malafide intent to adversely affect the image and reputation of our client.
Our client states that he has reason to believe that the said news report has been broadcast by you, the noticees, with malicious and mala fide intent to harm our client’s reputation and the same is the part of a large conspiracy against our client. The alleged news report seeks to portray, and does, in fact, portray, a false and incorrect impression about our client in minds of the public at large, where our client holds esteemed reputation”.
