Mumbai Sessions Court has dismissed the defamation complaint filed against Republic Editor Arnab Goswami by Mumbai cop Abhishek Trimukhe. The complaint was not maintainable before the Sessions Court under provisions of the CrPC, the Court ruled according to Bar and Bench.
The complaint was filed under section 199(2). Judge Uday M. Padwad observed, “Section 199(2) of the Cr. P. C. requires that the complaint has to be in writing and has to be made by the public prosecutor. This, in other words, means that no other person, be that even the person against whom the offence is alleged to have been committed, can make such a complaint.”
“In the present complaint, the complainant is not the public prosecutor. He merely has filed the complaint of Shri. Trimukhe, exactly similar to what the prosecutors do while filing Appeals, Revisions and other proceedings on behalf of the State/Prosecution. The public prosecutor thus is nothing more than a medium to file this complaint,” he stated.
The Court ruled that “His filing the complaint even through the public prosecutor however, would not confer any jurisdiction on this Court to take cognizance of the alleged offence.” In his complaint, DCP Abhishek Trimukhe had alleged that malicious comments against him were telecast on Republic Bharat.
Trimukhe alleged that Arnab Goswami had attempted to create an impression that the Mumbai Police including Trimukhe himself had made a deal with Rhea Chakraborty to shield her from the investigation into the death of Sushant Singh Rajput.