Senior journalist Arnab Goswami, who is at the centre of a controversy over "leaked transcripts" of a purported WhatsApp chat between him and former BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta, threatened to sue the Congress party.
In a press release released on Twitter, he said "The Congress party has uttered a series of absolute falsehoods, concocted lies, fabricated facts, unimaginable twisting of statements," against him and his network and added that he would not take this lying down.
Congress leader A.K. Antony had, on Wednesday, said leaking of official secret of military operations is treason and those involved must be punished and Prime Minister Narendra Modi must come clean on the issue.
Goswami said the Congress' "claim that I have compromised national security is hogwash and heart of heart even their top leaders know it. The problem with the Congress party is that they cannot stand a nationalist channel with a nationalist editor-in-chief."
"They think that they can browbeat me by threatening me with a litany of legal cases, interrogations, false charges, along with their cohorts in the media," he said and added that he has decided to "sue the Congress party, take strong legal action against their lies and expose them in the courts of law."
"I am filing a criminal complaint against every Congress leader who has uttered lies against me. Their statement that classified documents were shared is a falsehood," he further said.
#ArnabFightsBack | Arnab: I have decided to sue the Congress party, take strong legal action against their lies, and expose them in the courts of law. People of India: Join hands with Republic as we fight this political conspiracy with all our strength. The truth is on our side. pic.twitter.com/mJBgpjRVpG
— Republic (@republic) January 20, 2021
"Leaking of official secret is a criminal act. Leaking official secret about military operation, national security matters, sensitive military operations especially military strike is treason, anti-national. They have to be punished for anti-national activities, for treason. They deserve no mercy," Antony had said during a press conference.
A joint statement by Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Sushilkumar Shinde and Salman Khurshid and Antony said, "We demand that the prime minister should come clean on these accusations immediately in order to restore the severely damaged credibility of the highest office of the country....Never before has India's national security been so completely compromised. Never before has the office of the prime minister, office of the home minister, office of the law minister, office of the information and broadcasting minister been so brazenly compromised."
— With PTI inputs
