Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL) has filed a criminal complaint against its former employees Arnab Goswami and Prema Sridevi. (Source: IE image)

Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL) has filed a criminal complaint against its former employees Arnab Goswami and Prema Sridevi who are now associated with Republic TV on Wednesday morning. The case was filed over the tapes used by the channel regarding Lalu Prasad Yadav and Sunanda Pushkar. The news was confirmed by the company through a press release in which it stated: “Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. (BCCL) confirms filing a criminal complaint against Arnab Goswami and Prema Sridevi. The complaint has been accepted by the Mumbai Police and the matter is under investigation.”

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Republic TV which was launched on 6th May 2017 with Arnab Goswami as its Editor-in-Chief aired an audio tape of a conversation between ex-Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and Shahabuddin allegedly while he was still in prison. A couple of days later, the channel played another tape of phone conversations between Prema Sridevi (ex-News Reporter of Times Now) and the Late Sunanda Pushkar (wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor).

However, the recent complaint states that these audio tapes were procured and accessed while Arnab and Prema were working for Times Now, a BCCL property. The channel also claims that both the senior journalists admitted on air that they had these tapes in possession for last two years. “Mr. Goswami and Ms. Sridevi have wilfully, deliberately and with knowledge converted for their benefit and used the aforesaid intellectual property of “Times Now” and thereby dishonestly misappropriated the said intellectual property, thereby committing the offence of criminal misappropriation of property punishable U/Sec.403 of I.P.C. and several other provisions under applicable laws. BCCL has therefore taken steps to defend its rights and protect its intellectual property against such misuse,” the press release stated.