Delhi HC notice to Arnab Goswami on 'theft' suit by Times group

Delhi HC notice to Arnab Goswami on 'theft' suit by Times group

NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court, which had earlier issued summons, has now issued a notice to Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami in a case filed against him by former employer Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd (BCCL), owners of Times Now news channel. The complainant had alleged breach of employment contract and misusing intellectual property belonging to BCCL.

Goswami and his colleague Prema Sridevi, who was also in Times Now, are accused of having played audio tapes during a story on the mysterious death of Congress Party member and MP Shashi Tharoor’s wife Sunanda Pushkar. Times Now claims the audio tapes were its property. This development has been reported by legal news portal Live Law.

BCCL has alleged the Sunanda Pushkar tapes and those played out during a story done by Republic TV on its debut day on Lalu Prasad were ‘procured and accessed’ by Goswami and Sridevi while they were employed by Times Now.

While the court observed that an employee has to maintain confidentiality and utmost fidelity towards his employer and they cannot breach contract, it said that since the Times Group hasn’t submitted anything on record to prove that the audio recordings used by Goswami were parts of its database, it has only issued a short notice.

Earlier, the court had issued summons to Goswami, Sridevi and the ARG Outlier Media Private Limited, the company that owns Republic TV, in the matter.

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