India Today Group sends legal notice to Cobrapost

NEW DELHI: The India Today Group has sent a legal notice to the website Cobrapost over its recently released so-called 'Operation 136'.
The India Today legal notice is in response to the so-called Cobrapost investigation which claimed to be based entirely on so-called 'sting operations' on several media groups in India. However, it was actually a case of doctoring of content and falsification, as no media organisations named in it agreed to any illegal or immoral activity and no contracts were signed.

The India Today notice raises strong objections to videos released under Operation 136 -II on Cobrapost website. "The videos are illegal and violate the basic tenets of fair reporting and ethical journalism. The videos appear to be manipulated and edited in a manner so as to create a false impression in the eyes of the viewer. This false impression is further created by commentary from your own reporter, which has no connection to what has been said in the video," reads the notice.


"In case Cobrapost failed to remove the said content, appropriate legal action will be initiated against the website and its promoters," reads the India Today notice. ( Read full text of the notice at the end of the story.)

The so-called Cobrapost 'sting operation' was conducted by 'journalist' Pushp Sharma, who posed as one Acharya Chhatrapal Atal and claimed he was linked to various saffron groups. This is the same Pushp Sharma who was arrested by Delhi Police in May 2016 for fabricating an RTI reply to publish a report claiming the government was discriminating against Muslims in recruitment of yoga trainers by the AYUSH ministry. He was at that time booked for cheating, forgery and promoting enmity between different groups.

He was also arrested by Delhi Police in 2009 for extorting money from government officials after staging road accidents and carrying out fake sting operations. More specifically, he was caught red-handed by a Delhi Police raiding party on 17 November, 2009 while receiving Rs 10,000 cash as extortion amount from a police head constable. According to a Delhi police statement issued on 22 November 2009, he and his co-accused confessed that they had conducted several similar sting operations in the past for extorting money from policemen.

Pushp Sharma clearly has criminal antecedents and a legal history as a blackmailer and extortionist using doctored and falsified content to ply his trade.

His latest so-called sting operation on media groups has already led to a judicial rebuke for Cobrapost with the Delhi High Court on May 24 by restraining the website from releasing a part of the report at a press conference planned at the Press Club of India, New Delhi, on May 25 after an injunction was sought by the Dainik Bhaskar group. The restraint would stay 'till further orders,' the HC said, accepting the Dainik Bhaskar group's argument that the object of the report was 'sensationalism' and 'sensational journalism.'
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(This article was originally published in The Times of India)