Lawfare, Defamation – Journalists

Fatima Nafees, the mother of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmed, last week filed a suit in the Delhi high court through Socio-Legal Information Centre against some prominent media outlets for civil defamation, seeking damages of Rs 2.2 crores along with a prayer for permanent injunction. She filed the suit against Times of India, Times Now, and Dilli Aaj Tak, as well as Times of India and India Today Group reporters. The suit seeks action against an article published in ToI by its reporter on March 21, 2017, which claimed that alleged “highly placed police source” had disclosed that forensic reports obtained after an examination of Najeeb’s laptop showed his inclination towards joining ISIS and suggested that this might be the reason for his disappearance as well.

It stated that Najeeb’s Google search history included searches for “ways to join IS”. Further, Times of India also printed on its newspaper headlines such as, “Delhi Police has claimed that Najeeb was watching a video of the speech of an IS leader on the night of October 14” and “Missing JNU student saw IS videos: Cops” – all claims that were false, baseless, derogatory, malicious and defamatory. The suit claims that this news organisation did not attempt to verify the authenticity of the said forensic reports.

Times Now too ran captions and ‘tickers’ that read, among other things, “Sources: Najeeb searched for information on ISIS”, “Laptop hard disk analysis shocks”, “Sensational twist to Najeeb case”, “Najeeb browsed ISIS propaganda videos” and “Najeeb an ISIS sympathiser?”. Copies of the video continue to exist on the internet and have trended on social media. However, chief spokesperson of the Delhi Police, Dependra Pathak, and DCP, PRO, Delhi Police, Madhur Verma, soon afterwards stated categorically that nothing in the investigation could suggest that Najeeb accessed IS-related websites.