Team News Riveting
New Delhi, January 28
The India Today had reportedly taken senior anchor and consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai off the air for two weeks and deducted a month’s salary for his retracted controversial tweet.
On January 26, when the agitating farmers had taken over the ramparts of Red Fort amid soaring tempers, TV anchor and India Today’s consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted about the death of a young farmer in “police firing.” Besides the tweet, he also went on-air with the claim.
Sardesai had tweeted and went on-air, “One person, 45-year-old Navneet, was killed allegedly in police firing at ITO. Farmers tell me: the ‘sacrifice’ will not go in vain.”
The police contested the claim of Sardesai. The death of a young farmer created flutter and had the potential of precipitating violence manifold. But, since Delhi police acted on time and stopped the spread of any rumour, the issue didn’t go out of hand. The visuals clearly showed that the victim died after a tractor turned turtle and crushed him.
Following this controversy, India Today Group has taken senior anchor and consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai off the air for two weeks, citing his on-air claim and tweets asserting that Delhi Police shot and killed a farmer during the January 26 tractor rally. The channel has also deducted one-month’s salary from the anchor.
