On Thursday (28th March), Karnataka Congress leader Ravindra filed a case against Republic TV‘s Arnab Goswami and the editor of Republic Kannada Niranjan for allegedly broadcasting false news against the state CM Siddaramaiah. A case in this regard was registered at the SJ Park police station in Bengaluru on Thursday.
In his complaint, Congress leader Ravindra said that around 7.15 pm on Wednesday, Republic Kannada aired a news report claiming that traffic was stopped on MG Road to make way for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s vehicle and that an ambulance got stuck in the traffic. Ravindra claimed in his complaint that CM Siddaramaiah was in Mysuru, not Bengaluru, at the time as told in the Republic Kannada reporting. Ravindra accused the channel of propagating false news ahead of the general elections to wrongly influence the people’s opinion about the chief minister.
Congress spokesperson Lavanya Ballal Jain wrote on her X handle, “Case has been filed against Arnab Goswami and the Republic Kannada channel editor Niranjan J for telecasting false news against CM Siddaramaiah. They telecast a video clip claiming CM stopped vehicular traffic and obstructed the ambulance while travelling in Bangalore. But the CM had not travelled on the said date, he was in Mysore.”
In the meanwhile, Republic Kanada has said that the report was based on a video shot by a member of the public, and later the claim was found to be false. The channel has issued an apology and expressed regret over the report.
On 29th March, Republic Kannada posted on its X handle, “There was a news broadcast yesterday evening where there was an allegation that the ambulance traffic was obstructed due to the CM’s escort vehicle. The allegation was based on a video recorded by the public. Republic Kannada did a fact check of this news and during the fact check the truth was found. It is confirmed that the allegations against the CM are false and therefore Republic Kannada apologizes and regrets this news broadcast.”