The Uttar Pradesh police have filed five FIRs against DD News primetime anchor Askok Shrivastav and two others for allegedly defaming Hindi news channel Bharat Samachar on social media platform X.
In the complaints filed in Agra, Bulandshahr, Buduan, Kushinagar and Bareilly, Bharat Samchar staffers have alleged that journalists Ashok Shrivastav, Sudhir Pandey and one Nitin Shukla “tarnished the image of the channel” by sharing viral “misleading and objectionable posts” from their X handles.
The complainants claimed that the claims made in the posts in question were “completely baseless” and urged the police to ban them.
The complaints were filed a day after Sudhir Pandey shared a video on X claiming one TV channel journalist named “Vasindra Mishra”, who runs the channel “Bharat Samachar” had “illegally occupied” “4.5 acres of government land under the previous Samajwadi Party government rule in Uttar Pradesh”.
In their complaints to the police, Bharat Samachar staffers said that no one named Vasindra Mishra worked or was associated with the channel.
Ashok Shrivastav, Sudhir Pandey and Nitin Shukla have been booked for defamation under section 356 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita in two FIRs and for cheating under section 318 (4) in one FIR. All the five FIRs invoke section 66 of the Information Technology Act.
While Shrivastav has been with DD News for over a decade, Pandey runs a channel on YouTube and so does Shukla.
A deleted tweet
Shrivastav had reportedly quote-tweeted a post by Nitin Shukla which shared Pandey’s video. Shrivasatva’s tweet said Pandey had “exposed the sell-out journalists who called others Godi media.”
Shrivastav deleted his post shortly after multiple FIRs were registered against him and others on April 29 in different cities in Uttar Pradesh. In a post shared on Wednesday, Shrivastav said after talking to Pandey, “he felt” the latter “had mentioned the wrong name of a channel in his report”. “After his confession, I deleted that quote tweet containing the name of the channel”, the post read.
“Yesterday, a journalist named Sudhir Pandey, while doing a ground report from Saharoliya village in Kushinagar, UP, alleged that the SP government had given a large piece of land there to a journalist. I quoted that tweet and made a few tweets, one of which also tagged the UP government, saying that this matter should be investigated,” Shrivastav’s post read. It further read: “...I have always been in favor of the fact that all journalists and channel owners should publicly declare their assets so that the public does not doubt our honesty and the truth of all such allegations can come out. My quote tweet was also done in the same spirit.”
कल सुधीर पांडे नाम के एक पत्रकार ने यूपी के कुशीनगर के सहरोलिया गांव से एक ग्राउंड रिपोर्ट करते हुए यह आरोप लगाया कि वहां एक बड़ी जमीन सपा सरकार ने एक पत्रकार को दी थी। उस ट्वीट को मैंने कोट ट्वीट करते हुए कुछ ट्वीट करे, जिनमें से एक ट्वीट यूपी सरकार को भी टैग किया था कि इस…
— Ashok Shrivastav (@AshokShrivasta6) April 30, 2025
Shrivastav alleged that Bharat Samachar was “deliberately targeting” him and was getting FIRs registered in different police stations through its stringers and reporters. “...But in the meantime, that channel has started getting FIRs registered in different police stations of UP through its stingers and reporters. And they are deliberately targeting me and not Sudhir Pandey. It is obvious that the ecosystem finds it more convenient to target me. So that I get scared and withdraw my demand of making the assets of journalists and channel owners public in future, ” his X post read.
While Shrivastav claimed on X that he was being “targeted” and “not Sudhir Pandey”, all the FIRs, as accessed by Newslaundry, name Ashok Shrivastav, Sudhir Pandey and Nitin Shukla.
On the credibility of the allegations made by Pandey in his video report, Shrivastav said that Pandey stood by his statements. “He (Sudhir Pandey) has again tweeted and taken full responsibility of his report and said that if the matter goes to court, then some more cases of land distribution to journalists in UP will be exposed. He has also said that he will soon make available the documents related to his Kushinagar report,” his X post read.
The video in question was shared by Pandey on April 28. In the video, Pandey said he was reporting from a village in Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh where a school was supposed to be built by the previous Mulayam Singh-led Samajwadi government but had been occupied by Vasindra Mishra.
Pandey said: “Mein aaj Kushinagar ke Saharoliya gaon mein hun. Ek TV ke patrakar hai, jiska naam hain Vasindra Mishra, unke channel ka naam hai Bharat Samachar…Yogi Ji ke khilaaf, Modi ji ke khilaaf lagataar abhiyaan chhedke bhraschtachaar ko ujaagar karne ka prayas karte hain, baaki channelon ko kehte hai Godi media hai aur tathakahit Akhilesh Yadav aur unki chamcha company kehti hai baaki media bikki hui hai. (“Today I am in Saharoliya village of Kushinagar. There is a TV journalist whose name is Vasindra Mishra, he runs a channel called Bharat Samachar…They try to expose corruption by continuously running campaigns against Yogi Ji, Modi Ji. They call other channels Godi media and the so-called Akhilesh Yadav and his sycophant company say that the rest of the media is sold out.”)
Pandey further alleged: “Patrakar sahab 4.5 acre sarkaari zameen pe kabza karke baithe huye hain. Na ye Akhliesh Yadav ko dikhai deta hai aur na tathakathit TV channel aur baaki logon ko dikhai deta hai. (Journalist sahab has occupied 4.5 acres of government land. Neither Akhilesh Yadav nor the TV channels or other people can see this.)
Meanwhile, in a series of tweets posted on April 29, Sudhir Pandey claimed that Bharat Samachar was trying to cover-up the “misdeeds” of the Samajwadi Party.
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