A TV channel has been directed by a city court to pay Rs 20-lakh damages to three sacked police officials, including former ACP SS Rathi, serving life term in the 1997 Connaught Place shootout case, for harming their reputation by showing defamatory contents.
The court said under the auspices of proclaiming oneself to be an agency aimed at working towards public welfare and good faith, the channel, the show and its producer have made a “mockery of the plaintiffs’ (ex-police officials) reputations indiscriminately”. The court asked the media house, the show and its producer-cum-director to pay Rs 10 lakh to Rathi and Rs 5 lakh each to the other two ex-policemen Anil Kumar and Ashok Singh Rana.
The trio said it was shown during the programme that they had murdered innocent citizens in cold-blood because they (policemen) wanted a promotion and the episode had cast them as brutal and murderous persons.
Regarding Rathi, ADJ Kamini Lau said not only him but his family has suffered due to the campaign against him relating to this incident, which was admittedly a case of mistaken identity. “The plaintiff has given his sweat and blood to the institution, society and country and can’t be condemned for one unfortunate mistake, for which he has already been sentenced to life. The decorated police officer has suffered the legal consequences of this deadly mistake but...to shake the credibility of the entire police force is something which is impermissible,” it said.