Odisha news portal booked for ‘defamatory’ article about CM’s private secretary
BHUBANESWAR: The state crime branch has registered a case against a news portal for allegedly publishing a defamatory article about V K Pandian, private secretary to chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
This follows close on the heels of the arrest of Sudhansu Rout, editor of another news portal, on September 4 for allegedly publishing defamatory and obscene contents about sprinter Dutee Chand.
In the latest incident, Odia News Book had on September 12 published an article with the headline ‘Pandian took Rs 40 lakh to protect DFO?’ on the recent mysterious death of assistant conservator of forests, Saumya Ranjan Mohapatra, at Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district. Gajapati DFO Sangram Keshari Behera has been under the police lens for his alleged involvement in Mohapatra’s death.
The state government had asked the cyber cell of the crime branch to verify the article’s content following its publication. Inspector Bibhu Ranjan Sundaray, who was entrusted with the probe, called the article “false and malicious” in his report.
“The reputation of several senior government officials has been denigrated due to fake news. It is also likely to affect the morale of the state administration. The article is false and intended to spread rumours,” a senior crime branch official told TOI.
The cyber cell came to know that the phone number of the news portal, registered with Facebook, belonged to one Lakka Rajashekhar of Nalgonda, Telangana. A case has been registered against him under sections 465 (punishment for forgery), 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document or electronic record) of the India Penal Code.
Recently, the Supreme Court had expressed serious concern over several web portals and YouTube channels “spreading fake news in the absence of a regulatory mechanism”.
A number of journalists working for several dubious portals have been arrested in the state in the recent past for different offences.
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