Mumbai DCP files defamation case against Arnab Goswami, wife Samyabrata Ray

Mumbai : Mumbai Police Deputy Commission Abhishek Trimukhe has filed a criminal defamation complaint against Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami, his wife and codirector Samyabrata Ray Goswami, and the ARG Outlier Media group that runs the channel, over comments made during a segment on deceased actor Sushant Singh Rajput. Trimukhe was one of the police officers investigating the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, and spoke to Rhea Chakraborty on several occasions with regards to the case.

Trimukhe claimed that one of the shows on Republic TV, during the preliminary inquiry into the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, had broadcast content about the police officer and prime suspect Rhea Chakraborty, according to Bar and Bench. The complaint was filed after getting the requisite procedural sanction from the Maharashtra home ministry.

On August 7, Republic TV claimed to have accessed call records of conversations between Rhea Chakraborty and DCP Trimukhe. The segment, a panel discussion, focused on these call records. The complaint said that defamatory attacks were made on the 2007 batch IPS officer with the singular view of assassinating his official character and thereby causing humiliation to the Mumbai Police.

In December, a charge-sheet was filed against Goswami in connection with a 2018 suicide case, where an interior designer and his mother died by suicide allegedly because of non-payment of dues by firms of Goswami and two other accused. Goswami was arrested and released after a week after the Supreme Court intervened and granted him interim bail.