Journalists sentenced to jail in defamation case

Lucknow, Sep 3 (UNI) A court today awarded jail terms to three journalists and two publisher-printers for publishing a defamatory article and interview.

Special Chief Judicial Magistrate (customs) Suresh Chandra passed this order after admitting the complaint of senior IAS officer Anant Kumar Singh, the then district magistrate of Muzaffarnagar.

Mr Singh is presently the secretary, medical education.

The then journalist Raman Kripal has been sentenced to one year rigourous imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000.

Besides, the then newspaper chief editor Ghanshyam Pankaj; Deepak Mukherjee, the then publisher-printer; A K Bhattacharya, the then executive editor; and Sanjiv Kanwar, the then publisher-printer have been given six months jail term and Rs 2,000 fine each.

Mr Singh had taken umbrage to the said article and interview, when it was published in the newspaper.

UNI