Reporter TV managing director questioned in Kerala defamation case

Reporter TV Managing Director Anto Augustine was questioned by police on Thursday in connection with a defamation case involving Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan. Augustine was interrogated at the Kalamassery police station after investigators issued him a fresh summons.

He had not appeared before the investigation team on September 28. The case concerns remarks in which Augustine allegedly said that two people had approached him with what they described as a journalistic scoop about Satheesan’s alleged second marriage. Augustine said his channel did not broadcast the story because his team could not verify the allegation.

The first information report was registered by the Cyber Crime Police in Thiruvananthapuram City after a complaint from Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Raju P. Nair. The investigation was later transferred to Kochi City Police because the alleged remarks were made in Kalamassery.

Augustine has also approached the Kerala High Court seeking to quash the FIR. His case follows the Ernakulam Principal Sessions Court’s dismissal of his anticipatory bail plea. Police had told that court that they had no immediate plans to arrest him.

Augustine’s defence team maintained that any move to arrest him should be preceded by due notice. The source material does not report an arrest or specify the outcome of Thursday’s questioning. The police investigation remains ongoing.

Augustine’s High Court petition to challenge the FIR is also pending, according to the report. The allegations in the case concern remarks attributed to him; they do not establish the truth of the underlying claim about the Chief Minister’s personal life.