He is a habitual offender’: The victim of fake sting operation has his say on the speculated resignation of Rajdeep Sardesai
Much has been said and written about the ‘distinguished journalist’ Rajdeep Sardesai and his penchant of lying and spreading fake news. Only recently, he had spread blatant lies on TV and social media while the tractor rally violence was underway on Republic Day.
In one of his Tweets, Sardesai had claimed that a ‘farmer’ was killed after being shot by police during the tractor rally violence. He had suggested that the death of the so-called farmer may stir violence. The police soon shared the CCTV footage which clearly showed that the ‘farmer’ died while performing tractor stunts, taking a speeding tractor to smash police barricades.
Prior to this, the President of India’s office, in a strongly worded letter to the India Today group, had condemned the unsavory controversy surrounding the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose portrait. This controversy was created by non-other than Rajdeep Sardesai on January 23, who along with some other prominent ‘journalists’ had asserted the portrait was of actor Prosenjit and not of Netaji.
After this, India Today has reportedly taken its consulting editor Rajdeep Sardesai off the air for two weeks alongside a deduction of a month’s salary for posting misinformed tweets. It was also reported that the senior anchor had quit the channel several hours after being suspended.
Sardesai a “habitual offender”
After reports of him resigning started doing the rounds, OpIndia got in touch with Dr. Ajay Agarwal to get his reaction on the entire fiasco. For the uninitiated Dr. Agarwal is the doctor on whom Rajdeep Sardesai, Ashutosh (former spokesperson of the AAP), and Raghav Bahl (owner of the leftist-propaganda website The Quint) ran a ‘fake sting operation’ in 2006, ruining his life, career, and public image.
Dr. Agarwal did not seem surprised by the news. He opined that Rajdeep Sardesai is a repeat offender when it comes to spreading lies and this was bound to happen sooner or later.
Rajdeep Sardesai and ‘fake sting operation’
We had reported how Rajdeep Sardesai’s tendency to lie and spread fake news had ruined Dr. Ajay Agarwal, currently working at a government hospital in Noida, life. Dr Agarwal has been fighting the battle to regain his life and reputation since 2006. He claims that none of these apologised for ruining his life despite subsequent probes finding him not guilty.
As reproduced by Opindia, while speaking to portal Bhadas4media.com in 2018, Dr. Agarwal had alleged that Jamshed Khan, whom he refers to as a blackmailer, had concocted the fake sting operation and given it to IBN7. He further alleged that the channels IBN7 and CNN-IBN were newly launched and were looking for sensational stories, which is why they continuously aired the program for almost a week in July 2006. He was declared guilty of amputating limbs of healthy people so that they can beg and earn more. He was branded a ‘Shaitan Doctor’ (Devil Doctor) by the news channels. This led to an inquiry against Dr. Agarwal.
After the fabricated sting operation, Dr. Agarwal’s family had to face massive embarrassment, social boycott, and shame, as people clustered outside his house to protest for days, some even throwing stones.
Finally, after fighting a long legal battle, in 2018, the court issued a warrant against Rajdeep Sardesai and others. The three accused immediately submitted their bail applications after surrendering and the court sanctioned the same.
