On October 23, The Quint published a story titled: “7 Notices, 1 Reporter: The Legal Tussle Between Times Now & Mamata”. The story authored by Ishadrita Lahiri is about a ‘murky’ legal tussle between the broadcaster and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that had started off with Times Now airing a sting against a firm owned by Banerjee’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee.

In the sting, according to Lahiri’s report, Times Now had claimed to “expose business transactions between Abhishek and another businessman RK Modi.” In addition, the sting showed “dubious financial transactions between Abhishek’s firm Leaps and Bounds and several non-banking financial corporations.” The Times Now reporter, Tamal Saha, has since been served with seven notices and questioned twice by the police about his “motive” behind conducting such a sting.  

According to The Quint’s report, Prabhu Dayal Randar, one of the people featured in the Times Now sting, had filed a complaint with the police alleging that the reporter had approached him with “ulterior motive that might not have any relation with his journalistic endeavours”.

Further, the report states that Times Now had sent a member of its legal team, Neville Master, to help Saha. When the injunction was issued, Master went to procure a copy of the injunction order from the Sealdah Criminal Court. However, a criminal case was filed against Master for allegedly entering the judge’s room and photographing the order in the court’s record room. 

Subsequently, a notice under Section 41A of the CrPC was issued. This means that the police may arrest Saha without warrant. Speaking to Newslaundry, Saha said, “I’m not authorised to speak at this point of time. All I can say is, I’ve not done anything wrong.”