Defamation suit of Rs.5 crore filed against Achyut Samant, founder of Kalinga TV

Defamation suit of Rs.5 crore  filed against Achyut Samant, founder of Kalinga TV  in the Court of Civil Judge ( Senior Division) , Bhubaneswar

Dear friends

On 7.9.17, Smt. Sanjukta Panigarhi, Woman Activist  filed  a defamation suit of Rs. 5 crore  against  Himanshu Sekhar Khatua, Managing Director, Kalinga TV, Sri Achyut Samant, Founder, Kalinga TV, Soumyajit Patnaik, Editor, Kalinga TV  in the court of Civil Judge ( Senior Judge) , Bhubaneswar  to pass an interim injuction  restarining them from publishing/ telecasting /circulating any defamatory newsnagainst her  and from doing  any illegal activity  against her. She has also filed  a defamation suit of Rs. 5 crore  for loss of her dignity and social prestige in the society  due to defamatory language used against her.

Hearing and considering  the petition of Smt. Panigrahi under U/o. 39 Rule-3 of CPC,  the hon’ble court granted injuction  and restrained  all three accused from publishing, telecasting and circulating  any matter which are defamatory  and libellous in nature  causing defamation  to the petitioner directly or indirectly  till 17.9.2017  and filling  of show cause  by them  by 17.9.17.

It needs to be mentioned here that on dated 01.09.2017 at about 7P.M, Kalinga TV Channel telecast a news item making several false, baseless, imaginary and defamatory allegations against  RTI Activists  Smt. Sanjukta Panigrahi, Pradip Pradhan, Sudhir Mohanty and Ashok Nanda with an intention to blackmail her and tarnish her public image. The derogatory , false and defamatory  news item  aired  by Kalinga  TV  Channel  was designed to malign  the  image of  all leading RTI Activists including Sanjukta Panigrahi.  This news   caused a lot  of mental agony  and damaged her prestige  and dignity in public domain.    

Smt. Sanjukta Panigrahi is leading woman activist of the state and involved in a number of campaigns in Odisha.  Since 1994, she has been actively involved in social field and carrying out various activities for empowerment of women. She  has also been passionately  taking various issues relating to violation of  child rights, women rights in Odisha, proper rehabilitation of  slum-dwellers forcibly evicted  by the State administration  and working for effective implementation of Right to  Information Act, Right to Education Act  and  ensuring admission of poor  children   and weaker section of society in Private English medium school based in Bhubaneswar  fulfilling 25% category of reservation under RTE Act.   She has worked in various social organisations like CYSD, Open Learning System and many organisations.   As RTI Activist, she has also used RTI extensively to enforce transparency and contain corruption. Smt. Panigrahi is a  also involved in  the movement  demanding CBI inquiry into land scam.

Thanks & Regards

Srikanta ku pakal

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CoreBody Member , OSAA

Human Rights Defender ​

 

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