The Aam Aadmi Party Government has reportedly told its legal team to file a criminal case against some news channels which broadcast doctored videos of the February 9 incident in JNU where anti-national slogans were raised.
The decision to take legal action comes even as the News Broadcasting Standards Authority, the regulator of news channels, is yet to take a call on the airing of the tampered videos.
“The Delhi Government has directed its legal team to file a criminal case against four news channels which aired doctored videos on JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar,” a senior government official said.
He said the case will be filed under Section 200 of CrPC under which a magistrate can take cognisance of an offence on receiving a complaint. “The Hyderabad-based Truth Labs report has confirmed that the videos were tampered with and the same were aired. Words such as 'bandook', 'sher ke bacche' and 'Hurriyat ke Javan' were inserted in the video. Slogans such as ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ were telecast although they were not raised at the event. If media houses have done this, it is a big crime,” the official said.
The Delhi Government’s action came soon after CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and JD (U) leader K.C. Tyagi met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Sources said the leaders expressed serious concern at the potentially harmful fallout of the doctored videos.
“We have been assured by Mr Kejriwal that action is being taken against the news channels, which allegedly tampered with the videos and aired them,” Mr Tyagi said after the meeting.
A magisterial probe headed by New Delhi District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar had found that out of seven videos in circulation in the public domain, three were doctored. Mr Kumar, however, did not name any channel which aired the doctored videos.
