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Venus TV apologises to MATV presenter for blunder

Harjap Bhangal receives apology from Venus TV
Harjap Bhangal receives apology from Venus TV

Popular presenter and solicitor Harjap Singh Bhangal has confirmed the real reason why the programme ‘Munda Southall Da’ was forced off air on rival channel, Venus TV.

On his ‘Legal Soultions’ programme, which is aired Friday evenings on MATV, Bhangal showed a letter on his show, a copy of which has been seen by BizAsia, which was in effect an apology from Venus TV. It was regarding defamatory and untrue comments made by the then Venus TV presenter Major Sandhu about Harjap Singh Bhangal and his father Surinder Pal Singh Bhangal on a live show in January 2013. In turn Harjap complained to Ofcom regarding the contents of the show and untrue nature of the comments and during the investigation Venus TV decided to terminate Mr Sandhu’s TV show and apologise to Harjap.

In the letter Venus TV apologised to the Bhangal family and confirmed the comments made by Mr Sandhu were untrue and libellous and also reveal that they have taken the show ‘Munda Southall Da’ off air and Sandhu will no longer work for the channel.

Harjap said, “I’m glad Venus TV have decided to settle this matter in an amicable way without us having to resort to legal measure and I thank Tahir Ali (Venus TV) for his co-operation in this matter and also for having the wisdom to see sense and realise that presenters who make false claims with an intent to defame others should not be allowed on their channel. I also thank Andrea from Ofcom for investigating the matter and Kuldeep Shekhawat from MATV for his constant support and also Gurvinder Bassi from LLB Legal Solicitors who acted for me in this matter. Asian TV channels need to be more vigilant when hiring presenters especially in live shows and need to be aware that if they are going to make allegations or claims on a live TV show then they need evidence to substantiate such claims and that they must also attempt to verify that evidence. In this case the attack was made on my reputation and also my family was dragged into it for no apparent reason. The so-called “caller” on the show was in my opinion clearly a staged call who call had no relevance to the topic being discussed that day and also the caller was encouraged to make untrue comments instead of being challenged and put to proof. We could’ve have taken this matter to the courts if we had wanted but I am glad that Venus TV at once realised that what happened was wrong and I accept their apology.”

‘Legal Solutions’ is shown every Friday at 19:00 on MATV and is a legal call in show where Harjap Bhangal gives legal advice live on air. It has become cult viewing with over a million combined hits on YouTube and with viewers from as far as Canada and Australia on its YouTube channel.