Sakshi media house, promoted by Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, which carried a wrong news on the judgement of the special CBI court on the cancellation of his bail in the alleged quid pro quo case, is now facing the contempt of court.
The CBI special court in Hyderabad on Thursday took up the hearing on a petition filed by rebel YSR Congress MP Kanumuru Raghurama Krishnam Raju against Sakshi media for publishing the report in the website as well as social media, stating that the court had dismissed Raju’s petition seeking cancellation of Jagan’s bail.
The CBI court issued summons to Sakshi media editor Vardhelli Murali and chief executive officer Vinay Maheshwari, who appeared before the court on Thursday to present their version.
The Sakshi media representatives sought two weeks’ time to file their counters to the petition filed by Raghurama Raju. However, the court gave them time only till next Monday and deferred further hearing to that date.
It may be recalled that the hurried publication of the news about the CBI court verdict in favour of Jagan on the Sakshi website and later on its social media wing landed the YSRC and the Jagan government in an embarrassing position.
The court, in fact, did not deliver any judgement on that day but deferred it to September 15.
Though the media house removed both the post from the website as well as the tweet on coming to know that the hearing was still continuing in the court.
The journalist responsible for the goof-up was sacked from the job for causing embarrassment to the management, which later posted a regret message saying the news was erroneously published due to miscommunication and it was withdrawn from the website and the Twitter immediately.
But the damage was already done to Sakshi media house. It not only harmed its reputation but also caused an embarrassment to the management, as it is an issue concerning the court judgement.
Raju moved the court saying that Sakshi had resorted to the “mischief” deliberately by carrying the wrong news to mislead the people as well as judiciary. He sent the clipping of the news as well as the tweet.
