Lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj Calls Out Republic Over ‘False’ Allegations

Republic TV claimed that Sudha Bharadwaj received money from Maoists.

Republic TV anchor Arnab Goswami and Human Rights Lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj.

(Photo Altered by The Quint)

A day after Arnab Goswami’s Republic TV telecast a “Super Exclusive Breaking News” on Sudha Bharadwaj identifying herself as ‘Comrade Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj’, the human rights lawyer has refuted the statement and accused the anchor of levelling “ridiculous, scurrilous, false and completely unsubstantiated allegations” against her.

In a public statement issued on 5 July, Thursday, the national secretary of People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) said, “Goswami has claimed that I have written a letter (identifying myself as ‘Comrade Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj’) to a Maoist – one ‘Comrade Prakash’ – stating that a “Kashmir like situation” has to be created. ”

The channel also claimed that Bharadwaj received money from Maoists.

Bharadwaj has categorically denied the report and blamed Republic TV for “defaming” and “professional and personal injury.”

I find it curious that a document purporting to contain evidence of such serious crimes should first surface in the studio of Arnab Goswami.

Sudha Bharadwaj

Bharadwaj further adds that the "malicious, motivated and fabricated attack" is because she publicly condemned the arrest of advocate Surendra Gadling in connection with the Bhima Koregaon violence and two other lawyers in Sterlite protests.

It is clear that in targeting such lawyers, the state is trying to silence those who stand for the democratic rights of citizens.

As part of her work as a trade unionist, Bharadwaj said she became a lawyer in the year 2000 since then she has fought scores of cases of workers, farmers, adivasis and poor people in the field of labour, land acquisition, forest rights and environmental rights.

This indeed appears to be “my crime” which has earned me the super exclusive attentions of Arnab Goswami.  

Bharadwaj stated that she had issued instructions for serving legal notice on Arnab Goswami and Republic TV.