Producer Sandip Ssingh accuses Republic channel of extortion, seeks apology, compensation

Producer Sandip Ssingh has filed a defamation suit against the news channel Republic TV and its owner and anchor Arnab Goswami, seeking compensation of Rs200 crore.

Republic TV has named Ssingh several times in relation to the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, whom the channel claims was murdered on 14 June 2020.

Ssingh has claimed to be a close friend of Rajput. 

Ssingh shared a copy of the notice on his Instagram page and wrote, “It’s payback time Republic. #Defamation #EnoughIsEnough.” 

The notice accuses Republic TV of trying to extort Ssingh, claiming that its employees had threatened to air news that would affect the producer adversely unless the channel "benefitted financially" from him.

The notice read, “That my client received several massages from your correspondents/ employees with the criminal intent and in order to extortion, you had publicly demanded my client arrest and termed him as key conspirator and murderer. You the above noticees falsely imputing my client in TV debates, programmes, social media platforms almost every day without any cogent evidence and intentionally interfering in the investigation carried out by the investigations agencies such as CBI and Mumbai Police [sic].” 

In the notice, Ssingh has asked the channel to delete all news items allegedly defaming him and has demanded an apology for running them. “By this legal notice, you notices are hereby called upon to drop, delete and remove all the malicious footage and articles telecasting forthwith against my client or anyone on your behalf, or any other print/ online forum and TV whatsoever, and tender/ release an unconditional public apology in writing/ video to my client for your vexatious and frivolous allegations you have already made [sic],” read the notice. 

The notice also says that if the channel fails to apologize within 15 days, Ssingh would file civil and criminal cases against them. 

Ssingh has produced movies such as Mary Kom (2014), Sarbjit (2016), Bhoomi (2017) and PM Narendra Modi (2019).