Jun 2, 2007

The BMW Case, NDTV Sting Op and Some Questions

NDTV usually doesn’t do sting on big fishes. So when NDTV does a big sting, some questions always pop up.

The BMW hit and run case dragging for eight years took a new turn after NDTV aired a previously unseen tape of the BMW car in a badly damaged condition just after the accident. The question here is how did NDTV get hold of this tape? Was this tape, which was in the custody of the police, made available to NDTV by someone in the govt or obtained by NDTV after bribing the police with moolah or other obvious means?

At that time NDTV also aired a report on a private party given by Sanjeev Nanda. In it, NDTV reporter interviewed Nanda where he talked about his business, etc. How did NDTV get access and permission – which no other channel got - to record and telecast Nanda’s private party? Doesn’t this show that NDTV and the Nandas were on good terms not so long ago? So what turned NDTV against the Nandas and what made NDTV telecast a tape that is potentially damaging to Sanjeev Nanda? Is NDTV settling old scores with the Nandas?

NDTV’s telecast of the sting tapes was only after Kulkarni testified in the court that a fat man was in the driver’s seat, which effectively could let Sanjeev Nanda off the hook. So if we take this into consideration, then NDTV timed the telecast to tarnish only IU Khan and RK Anand. After the telecast the Nandas have distanced themselves from their lawyer, RK Anand.

From Barkha Dutt’s article in the HT it is clear that Kulkarni’s motives were suspect from day one. He was doing it for money and he had approached other channels too- looking for the highest bidder obviously - about the sting. This and Kulkarni’s previous ambiguous statements clearly make him an unreliable witness. Still NDTV knowing very well about the fallout went ahead telecasting the tapes “in public interest” after consulting its legal team. Who are the members of NDTV’s legal team?

IU Khan and RK Anand according to Barkha Dutt "are ingenious, influential, notoriously aggressive and famously successful". So if NDTV is taking them on, then it must be only because people more powerful than these two are backing NDTV. Only the UPA govt. is more powerful than these two in India. Is anyone in the govt. backing them?

Why is NDTV hiding the fact that its correspondent the baby faced Poonam Aggarwal transcending the limits of journalistic ethics - so ‘dear’ to Barkha Dutt and Prannoy Roy – was indulging in blackmailing IU Khan and demanding he give her the case diary and confidential police documents pertaining to the case?

Why is NDTV hiding the fact that after Khan didn’t part with the prosecution documents, Poonam Aggarwal had threatened him that he should be prepared to face the consequence?

Why is NDTV hiding the fact that this warning by their reporter had prompted Khan to send a legal notice to NDTV on April 19, to which NDTV replied on April 26 expressing regret over the happening?

Why is NDTV hiding the fact that its reporter Poonam Aggarwal had also been hauled up repeatedly by the court of another additional sessions judge, Ravinder Kaur, for misreporting the court proceedings?

For me, this collusion between the prosecution and the defence is nothing new. Such things happen daily allover India. But in this particular case there is more to it. It is like killing two or more birds with one stone. Don’t ask me to explain.

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