BCCL seeks FIR against Arnab Goswami

The Bennett and Coleman Company Ltd. (BCCL) on Tuesday submitted an application to the Azad Maidan police seeking a First Information Report (FIR) against journalist Arnab Goswami, co-founder of the recently launched television channel Republic, for alleged copyright violations.

Sources said that BCCL representatives visited the Azad Maidan police station on Tuesday and submitted the application, alleging that the material for two recent news stories aired by Republic TV were researched and procured by Mr. Goswami and Prema Sridevi, a reporter with Republic TV, while both of them were with Times Now, the BCCL’s television channel.

While the first story was about conversations between Lalu Prasad Yadav, former chief minister of Bihar and former Siwan MP Mohammad Shahabuddin while the latter was in jail, the second story was about conversations between Congress leader Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar and their househelp.

A police officer said that the application seeks action against Mr. Goswami for theft, dishonest misappropriation of property, criminal breach of trust, dishonestly receiving stolen property, assisting in concealment of stolen property and cheating with the knowledge that wrongful loss to a person may ensure under the Indian Penal Code.