Tharoor urges HC to stop Arnab from misreporting on Pushkar

Agencies

October 24, 2017

New Delhi, Oct 24: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor today urged the Delhi High Court to stop journalist Arnab Goswami and his news channel Republic TV from "misreporting" his wife Sunanda Pushkar's death, saying his "right to be left alone" and "right to silence" must be respected.

The submission was made before Justice Manmohan, who reserved the verdict on Tharoor's plea seeking to restrain Goswami and his channel from airing any news or debate about the death of Pushkar.

The journalist and the channel, on the other hand, said they had only placed the actual evidence and the police report while broadcasting the news.

The Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha MP has filed an interim application for stopping the channel from broadcasting the incident in the pending Rs two crore civil defamation suit against the TV anchor and Republic TV.

Senior advocate Salman Khurshid, appearing for Tharoor, submitted that the court must direct Goswami and the channel not to mention the expression "murder of Sunanda Pushkar", as it is yet to be established by a competent court that her death was "murder", and ensure that the trial is not prejudiced.

"Goswami and channel must not involve in rhetorical assertions," Khurshid contended.
Senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, appearing for Goswami and the channel, said they have neither "condemned" Tharoor, nor suggested that he was involved in the death of his wife.
The counsel also submitted that the Congress leader was not called "the killer" of his wife by the journalist or the channel, as claimed by Tharoor.

After hearing the arguments of all the parties, the court reserved its order.
Tharoor has filed three different applications through his counsel Gaurav Gupta seeking various directions, including not to make any defamatory publication against him in any manner.

Pushkar was found dead in a suite of a five-star hotel in south Delhi on the night of January 17, 2014. The matter is still under investigation.

Tharoor had on May 26 this year filed the civil defamation suit against Goswami and Republic TV in the High Court.
He had also sought a direction from the high court to restrain the TV channel from broadcasting any show relating to the death of his wife till the investigation is completed by the Delhi Police.

Tharoor has referred to the broadcasting of news items from May 8 to 13 when the TV channel claimed to have aired an expose connected to the death of his wife.

The politician has alleged that despite assurances given in the court on May 29 by the counsel for Goswami and Republic TV, they were engaged in "defaming and maligning" him.
The court had on May 29 said the journalist and his news channel could put out stories stating facts related to the investigation of Pushkar's death, but could not call the Lok Sabha MP a "criminal". It had also told their counsel to reduce the rhetoric.

Goswami and the channel had in their affidavit said that they have abided by the court's direction and in "no manner misreported or misled the viewers as the facts were correctly reported".

They have also claimed that the suit has been "instituted with an oblique and ulterior motive and is a misguided attempt to muzzle a media channel and the dissemination of true facts to the public".

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Israel killing Palestinian children in Gaza every day despite ceasefire: UNICEF

News Network

November 22,2025

The Israeli regime’s forces have killed two Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip every day since the ceasefire began in early October, UNICEF has warned.

The UN children’s agency said on Friday that Israeli forces continue to attack Palestinians in Gaza even though the agreement was meant to stop the killing.

“Since 11 October, while the ceasefire has been in effect, at least 67 children have been killed in conflict-related incidents in the Gaza Strip. Dozens more have been injured. That is an average of almost two children killed every day since the ceasefire took effect,” UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires said in Geneva, reminding that each number in the statistics represents a child whose life had ended violently.

“These are not statistics,” he said. “Each child had a story, a family, and a future that was stolen from them.”

Data from Palestinian factions, human rights groups, and government bodies recorded since the US-brokered ceasefire deal went into effect on October 10 show that Israeli forces have carried out numerous attacks, each constituting a separate ceasefire violation.

UNICEF teams say they repeatedly continue to witness heart-wrenching scenes of fearful Palestinian children sleeping outdoors with amputated limbs, while others live as orphans in flooded, makeshift shelters.

“I saw this myself in August. There is no safe place for them. The world cannot normalize their suffering,” Pires said, lamenting that the UN could “do a lot more if the aid that is really needed was entering faster.”

The UNICEF spokesperson warned that with the advent of winter, the risks for hundreds of thousands of displaced children will increase.

He warned, “The stakes are incredibly high” for children as winter acts as a threat multiplier, where children have no heating, no insulation, and few blankets. He said respiratory infections rise.

“Too many children have already paid the highest price,” Pires said. “Too many are still paying it, even under a ceasefire. The world promised them it would stop and that we would protect them.”

“Now we must act like it,” the UNICEF spokesperson added.

Since the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023, it has killed nearly 70,000 people in the territory, most of them women and children, and injured over 170,000 more, while reducing most of the structures in the enclave to rubble.

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