An FIR has been filed against a man named Salman for deliberately spreading lies and canards against Sudarshan TV Editor-in-chief Suresh Chavhanke through his YouTube channel The Live TV.
Besides Salman, 6 others have also been named in the FIR filed on the basis of a complaint lodged by Suresh Chavhanke. These include Online News India, Desh Live, Hyderabadi Talks, Bolta Bharat, Viral Entertainment and Loktantra TV. They have been charged under Section 499, 500, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act, 2008.
Earlier this month, Salman had uploaded a video on his YouTube channel alleging that the Editor in Chief of Sudarshan TV was beaten up by a mob. The claim was instantly lapped up by left-leaning trolls who amplified the claim that Suresh Chavhanke was at the receiving end of thrashings by an indignant bunch of people.
Suresh Chavhanke promises to hold fake news peddlers to account
The assertion was vigorously refuted by Suresh Chavhanke, who vowed to take legal action against those who were promoting unfounded rumours of him getting roughed up by a mob. Chavhanke had then taken to Twitter to assert that the video being shared online was years old and maliciously edited to malign him.
In a Tweet (in Hindi), he wrote, “This news is completely fake. The video of the years-old demonstration is being cut and made viral with claims that it was shot among the farmers. Nothing like this has ever happened in my life. Abhisar Sharma videos are on this channel. The owner is Salman. I will take legal action against whoever spreads this.”
Shortly after Chavhanke warned of legal repercussions, the video was deleted from the channel but not before a raft of social media trolls downloaded it and re-uploaded it on various platforms. The video was also shared by verified accounts, including the official Facebook page of Uttarakhand Youth Congress.