A Lucknow court has initiated a case against the Editor of a news agency on a complaint alleging that the agency published false news attributed to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
While hearing the complaint filed by former IPS officer Amitabh Thakur, the court said,"Heard and perused the complaint and written submissions. At this stage, without entering into the merits of territorial jurisdiction or sufficiency of grounds, the complaint is found to be in order procedurally. The Complainant is directed to appear on 26.09.2025 for recording of his statement under oath."
Thakur alleged that the said news agency repeatedly attributed statements to the ECI that were neither released on its official website nor shared on its verified social media platforms. He contended that this amounted to the agency circulating false news in the name of the Commission without any official backing.The complaint pointed to multiple instances from August 2025, including news agency's posts on X and news reports published either prior to or without any official confirmation from the Election Commission.
Thakur referred to news agency's post dated August 1, 2025, at 3:08 PM, which carried a statement allegedly from the ECI objecting to Rahul Gandhi’s allegations of vote theft.
"...best of the applicant’s knowledge, many news have been relayed by the media house being run by the Editor as being that of the ECI, without any official fact or evidence to back it up, completely on its own. Thus, there are many news relayed by it, which are neither on the official website of the Commission, nor on their social sites, nor presented through any official Press Conference or Press interaction etc, which have only news agency's word to back up the given news. Here, ECI seems to be relaying arbitrary and self-assumed, self-professed and false information/news in the name of the Commission."
Thakur further submitted that although he could have approached the police to seek registration of an FIR, there was a strong possibility that the police might be influenced due to various factors. Therefore, he considered it more appropriate to file a direct complaint before the court.Accordingly, he urged the court to take cognizance of his complaint and initiate necessary proceedings against the Editor for alleged acts of criminal malfeasance.
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