New Delhi [India], February 4 : The Delhi Saket Court has issued summons to Congress leaders Ragini Nayak, Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh in connection with a defamation complaint filed by senior journalist Rajat Sharma.
Sharma alleged that Ragini Nayak levelled false accusations against him, claiming that he abused her during a live television debate on June 4, 2024. The complaint further alleged that the other accused reiterated Nayak's claims on the social media platform X.
Sharma's application sought the summoning of the accused on allegations of forgery, creation of a false document, and defamation. Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Devanshi Janmeja issued summons to the Congress leaders after considering the allegations and material placed on record.
"In view of the aforesaid discussion, there exists sufficient grounds to summon the accused persons Ragini Nayak, Pawan Khera and Jairam Ramesh under Sections 465, 469, 471, 499 and 500 of the IPC on 27.07.2026. Accordingly, the said three accused persons were summoned," the JMFC ordered on Monday.
While issuing the summons, the court observed that "it appears that the accused persons, by their spoken statements and publications made on X, which were intended to be read, have made defamatory allegations against the complainant, knowing and intending to harm the reputation of the complainant." The court clarified that "nothing in this order shall be tantamount to an expression on the final merits of this case, as the same is a matter of trial."
The court further stated that, "In the considered opinion of this court, the offence of forgery and creation of a false document, and the use thereof for the purpose of defaming the complainant, is also established, since the complainant has shown that the raw footage of the incident was never given to the accused persons. Therefore, the video posted by them on X has been created by recording the live or otherwise telecast footage of the show by India TV." The court added that the complainant had sufficiently established that the accused persons obtained the telecast footage of the TV show on June 4, 2024, and superimposed the invective as a caption through an explanatory text, stating that the same was uttered by the complainant against Nayak.
The court also referred to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report, which stated "that there appeared to be a visible alteration in the videos uploaded by the accused persons, as the same contained titles and captions indicating the video to be a post-production video file."
"It is the allegation of the complainant that, by way of press conferences, media reports, social media, etc., the accused persons have made false and defamatory statements against him, alleging that he used derogatory and abusive language against Ragini Nayak during a live television debate," the court noted.
Further, the court said that "it is also alleged that the accused persons, in order to buttress this false and vexatious allegation, uploaded a modified and tampered video with inserted text containing the aforesaid invective as a caption, which was not originally part of the live telecast, imputing the same to have been said by the complainant to Nayak. In doing so, they committed forgery of the original video and created a false document, which was then used to injure the complainant's reputation."
"It is alleged that on June 10, 2024, at 11:06 PM, Ragini Nayak posted a tweet on X stating that the complainant had abused her, and along with the said tweet, posted the video of the incident with the invective superimposed, implying that the same was part of the original live telecast," the court added.
The Saket Court also referred to the Delhi High Court's order dated June 14, 2024, which held that "it was prima facie evident from the video of the impugned TV debate that the complainant had barely intervened for a few seconds and that no abusive language was used against Ragini Nayak."
The High Court had directed the accused persons to remove their social media posts related to the incident from the public domain.
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