Aaj Tak faces legal notice for insensitive coverage of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death

Popular Hindi news channel, Aaj Tak has been sent a legal notice by a Delhi based lawyer, who branded the channel’s coverage of Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise as “demeaning”.

Practicing Advocate of the Delhi High Court, Mohit Singh has written to Aroon Purie, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of India Today Group, which operates Aaj Tak.

During its coverage of Rajput’s death on Sunday, Aaj Tak allegedly flashed a news ticker with the following message: “How did he ‘hitwicket’?” on the back of his role in film ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’.

LiveLaw.in quoted Mohit saying, “By this comment Aaj Tak has insinuated that the death of Mr. Sushant by suicide is equivalent to that of a batsman in cricket who breaks his own wicket with his bat or any part of his person while playing the ball or setting off for a run. The careless use of such language portrays that the news channel. Aaj Tak with its high viewership has shed its responsibility towards the Indian masses.”

Mohit also blasted other parts of the channel’s coverage, which he said was ‘speculative’, ‘uncorroborated’’ and ‘cast aspersions on the actor’s integrity’. Mohit has asked the group to issue an unconditional apology for its coverage, failing which he would follow up with his legal action.

The notice said, “The said apology should include that you take full responsibility of the mistake committed by your channel and the news of suicide is a mere comment by the police and that the post-mortem report is awaited.”

Similarly, ZEE News also flashed an insensitive message during its coverage on Sunday – both channels trended on Twitter after viewers demanded to boycott them.