GUWAHATI: Kamrup (Rural) district's top cop, Superintendent of Police Partha Sarathi Mahanta, in a media briefing on Saturday, informed that he and his wife Indrani Baruah, who is also a senior Assam Police official, have filled a defamation case amounting to Rs 200 crores (Rs 100 crores each) against a local media group for allegedly publishing and telecasting news which, he alleged, defamed them in public.
According to him, the media group had alleged in a news that the Kamrup SP and his wife held a closed-door meeting with a group of people involved in illegal dry betel nut (supari) trade at a five-star hotel in Guwahati.
The senior police official challenged the owner of the media group to prove the allegations made against him and his wife and that if the latter does, he is ready to quit his profession. However, if he fails to do so, the Kamrup SP asked the media group owner to change his profession.
Mahanta, talking to media, said that in response to a news published and telecast in Asomiya Pratidin and Pratidin Time respectively on August 8 on alleged illegal supari trade in Baihata Chariali, the Baihata police registered a suo moto case and sought cooperation from Asomiya Pratidin.
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The media group, however according to Mahanta, started targeting him and his wife alleging that they had held a meeting with people involved in the illegal supari trade at the Taj Vivanta hotel.
Mahanta revealed that he had visited the hotel only for attending some private functions to which he and his wife were invited. He even named the functions. The police officer claimed that the media group published the news without verifying any facts and the act has defamed him and his wife in public.
Reacting to the allegations of the police officer a senior official of the media group, talking to G Plus, said that the news was carried on the basis of a press conference by KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi but the police officer had not mentioned anything about Akhil Gogoi or anyone else during his media briefing. He rather just attacked the media house owner. “It is an attack on the media,” said the official.
The official further said that it is a fact that there are instances of supari syndicate in the state and various complaints are filed with the government, and as a media house it is the responsibility to raise such issues. He further said that the matter is now subjudice and the law will take its own course.
