Fresh petitions have been filed in the Karnataka and Bombay High Courts seeking and ban on Republic TV founder Arnab Goswami and his channel.
The filing of petitions comes hours after the Supreme Court order granting him three week protection from an arrest on Friday.
Additionally, the petitions sought court directive to stop broadcasting of Republic TV and ‘The Debate’, the primetime debate show anchored by Arnab Goswami, OpIndia reported.
The petitioner, Mohammed Arif, who filed a plea in the Karnataka High Court, has alleged in his petition that Republic TV and other channels have attributed the coronavirus outbreak in the country to the entire Muslim community after the role of Tablighi Jamaat in aiding the virus spread came to the light.
The petitioner contended that broadcasting of such news enables stigmatisation of Muslims in the society.
The petition mentions that Arnab Goswami has not only promoted communal enmity among the people but has also indulged in “shameful acts of derogatory, defamatory and name shaming on live TV”.
He further stated that Goswami had resorted to sharing fake news while alleging that the shameful killing of the Hindu sadhus in Palghar was a handiwork of a Christian or Muslim mob.
The plea filed in the Bombay High Court seeks an FIR against the Goswami, along with an interim ban on the broadcasting of his news channel.
The request has been made on the grounds of falsely purveying fake news that a Muslim or a Christian mob was behind the unfortunate lynching of the Hindu sadhus.
Suraj Singh Thakur and Bhai Jagtap, the petitioners, have alleged in their petition that lynching is alleged to have been committed due to the religion of the victim, however, it was amply clear during the time of the debate that the mob consisted of members of the same religion as the victims of the lynching.
