Times Group files criminal complaint against Arnab Goswami for IPR breach

Group seeks to book him under IPC and IT Act for allegedly using Times Now tapes on Republic TV

Bennett, Coleman & Co Ltd, also known as the Times of India Group, has filed a criminal complaint against Arnab Goswami, the former  editor-in-chief of the group's Times Now channel and anchor of the popular Newshour that runs on it.

In a complaint filed on Tuesday, May 16, with the Azad Maidan Police Station, Mumbai, the BCCL accused Goswami and Prema Sridevi of theft, criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of property and infringement of BCCL's intellectual properties by using the material on Republic TV on May 6 and May 8. Soft copies of the complaint and an executive summary thereof were reviewed by Business Standard.

Republic TV is the name of the news channel that Goswami launched on May 6,  months after he quit Times Now last November.

In its complaint, BCCL has sought to slap Goswami and Sridevi with various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Information Technology Act, for allegedly using material that belonged to BCCL on Republic TV. BCCL claims  the duo had access to stories, audio-video content, documents, tapes, while they were still employees of Times Now, and had used some of these in the channel that Goswami launched on May 6.

In its executive summary, BCCL submitted that on the first day of its launch, Republic TV carried an expose on Lalu Prasad Yadav in which audio tapes containing phone conversations between the ex-chief minister of Bihar and Shahabuddin allegedly while he was still in prison were played out.

BCCL further claimed that another expose was done on Republic TV by Goswami on May 8 in which audio tapes of phone conversations between Prema Sridevi (former News Reporter of Times Now) and the Late Sunanda Pushkar (wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor) and their house help Narayan was broadcast.

BCCL alleged that both these exposes displayed material (in the form of audio tapes of phone conversations) that was procured and accessed while Goswami and Sridevi were in the employment of Times Now. It said that an internal inquiry clearly pointed out that these tapes were procured and in the possession of Goswami and Sridevi while they were in the service of BCCL.

The complainant also alleges that Goswami and Sridevi had on Republic TV admitted and claimed that the audio conversation in the Sunanda Pushkar case aired on May 8 was in their possession for the last two years when they were with Times Now.   

Accusing Goswami and Sridevi of wilfully and deliberately using Times Now's intellectual property, BCCL has sought to prosecute the duo for criminal misappropriation of property under section 403 and other provisions of the Indian Penal Code, and certain sections of the Information Technology Act.