Three years after filing the alleged molestation story, which made the accused Sarvjeet Singh Bedi, a national ‘pervert,’ ruined his career and forced him to visit the police station every time before he left the city (Delhi), the journalist of a reputed Indian news channel has issued an apology.
The journalist, who no longer works for the media house he filed the breaking story for, said that he was ‘ashamed’ and ‘regrets’ the role he played in the character assassination of Sarvjeet.
“Just read the story on your case. I was very disturbed. I wanted to personally apologise to you for playing a part in your character assassination,” said the journalist in a Facebook message referring to a report he had read in ThePrint.
Sarvjeet was accused of molesting and verbally abusing a former St. Stephen’s student Jasleen Kaur in Traffic signal in Delhi. The alleged victim had published a Facebook post on August 2015, which had gone viral across the country, leading to Sarvjeet’s arrest.
He was booked under Sections 354A (punishment for sexual harassment) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and has so far attended 13 hearings on the case, while the complainant came for none.
“Each time I go to the court for the hearing, they call out my name, ask me to put my hand up and write down my name. (Then) they ask if the complainant has come. Because she is absent, another date is given and the matter is dismissed. This has been happening for the past three years,” Sarvjeet told ThePrint.
The story reportedly (as claimed by the journalist) was broken by the above-mentioned journalist for the broadcast channel he was working for.
“I felt extremely sorry about breaking that story, just because we wanted to be first. In this constant tussle to be ahead of other TV channels, a life was ruined,” the journalist told the news agency.
He further wrote in his apology to the accused, “I know my apology will not change a thing in court or bring back anything you’ve lost. I can’t even begin to understand how you must have felt and the hardships you went through, but I hope you please accept my apology. Sorry for everything!”
Sarvjeet, who has had to go through a lot throughout these three years, however, said that it was not the journalist but the news channel that must apologise, for publishing news without verifying them.
“The journalist was just an employee of the Times Group who was doing his job. It is the channel and its editor who should issue an apology,” Singh said. “They called me a national pervert, delhi ka darinda (Delhi’s demon) and what not. That was not the employee’s fault but an editorial call,” he said, reports the news agency.