New Delhi : The Respondent No.02, Mantoo Sharma, in his Counter-Affidavit to the Supreme Court of India in the Special Leave Petition(Criminal) No.1603 of 2013, has told the court that the office of the Press Registrar, the Government of India, New Delhi, has arbitrarily flouted the orders of the Central Information Commission (New Delhi) in matters relating to the illegal publication of fifty editions of Dainik "Hindustan" in Bihar and Jharkhand for five years .
The related part of Mantoo Sharma's counter-affidavit is given below in the original form:
ORDERS OF CENTRAL INFORMATION COMMISSION (NEW DELHI) FLOUTED
"The Central Information Commission(C.I.C) (New Delhi), vide its order dated December 08, 2008, in the case No.CIC/OK/A/2008/885/AD (ShriKrishna Pd Vs Central Public Information Officer, office of the Press Registrar, New Delhi), passed an order directing the CPIO to hold an immediate enquiry into the matter of publication of Dainik Hindustan under one title 'Hindustan' from 38 districts of Bihar and 12 of Jharkhand with different editors stationed at each of 50 districtsand with different news items from each district allegedly violating the rules of Press & Registration of Books Act.The CIC also directed the CPIO(office of the Press Registrar,New Delhi) to conduct the enquiry with consultation with the District Magistrates and submit the enquiry report within one month of the receipt of this order.
PUBLISHERS/OWNERS PROVE THEIR FORGERY, FRAUD AND CHEATINGS WITH THEIR PRINTED DOCUMENTS PUBLICLY
But, the order of the C.I.C,New Delhi has not been complied till this day by the CPIO(the office of the Press Registrar,New Delhi) under the influence of the powerful corporate media house.The office of Press Registrar(New Delhi) only wroteletters to the District Magistrates of Patna,Bhagalpur and Muzaffarpur to hold an enquiry into the matter.When the process of enquiry began ,the owners/publishers of Dainik Hindustan removed the "Patna Registration Number—RNI No.44348/1986" from its Print Line and started printing and publishing "RNI No.- Applied for" on the Print-line of the Bhagalpur and Munger editions/publications of Dainik Hindustan from July 01, 2011.Even when the Company continued printing and publishing the Registration Number –RNI No.-Applied For, the Union and the Bihar Governments didn’t stop releasing the government advertisements to the Bhagalpur and Munger editions of Dainik Hindustan. This action of the Union Government and the Bihar government show the involvement of government officials and concerned ministers in this government advertisement scam.At the same time, this action of theowners/publishers of the company has publicly exposed their acceptance of offences of forgery, fraud and cheatings in the printed form , and it is unusual in the history of economic offences of the media – world.
Such documentary evidences in this matter need more and more thorough probe by powerful investigating agencies of the country like C.B.I orCAG to expose yet other economic offences relating to such other Government Advertisement Scams in other districts of Bihar and in other states viz Jharkhand, Delhi etc.
Thus, the company has openly and publicly accepted in print its forgery, fraud and cheatings in respect of the printing and publication of the "Registration No.44348/1986" (allotted to the Patna edition) on the "Print-line" of the Bhagalpur , Munger,Lakhisarai,Jamui, Sheikhpura, Banka, Khagaria, Begusarai and Muzaffarpur publications/editions of Dainik Hindustan for more than a decade."
Named accused persons in the Munger Kotwali P.S Case No.445/2011(Bihar): In the Munger Kotwali P.S Case No.445/2011 in Bihar, the Chairperson of M/S Hindustan Media Ventures Limited (New Delhi)Shobhana Bhartia, the Chief Editor,Dainik Hindustan, Shashi Shekhar(New Delhi), the Regional Editor,Dainik Hindustan,Patna edition, Akku Srivastawa, the Regional Editor, Dainik Hindustan,Bhagalpur edition,Binod Bandhu and the Publisher, ,M/S Hindustan Media Ventures Limited( Nw Delhi), Amit Chopra, have been accused of receiving the government money to the tune of about rupees two hundred crores illegally and fraudulently by obtaining and printing the advertisements of the Union and Bihar governments in the name of illegally printed and published Munger and Bhagalpur editions of Dainik Hindustan for a decade continuously in Bihar.
The Munger police ,meanwhile, have submitted the Supervision Report No.01 and the Supervision Report No.-02 and have found all allegations "prima-facie true" against all the named accused persons including the principal accused Shobhana Bhartia (New Delhi) under sections 8(b)/14/15 of the Press & Registration of Books Act, 1867 and sections 420/471/476 of the Indian Penal Code. The historical order of the Patna High Court : The Hon’ble Justice of the Patna High Court, Justice Anjana Prakash, in her order, dated Dec 17,2012, in the Criminal Miscellaneous No. 2951 of 2012, refused to interfere in the police investigation and directed the Munger (Bihar) police to complete the investigation in the Kotwali P.S Case No. 445/ 2011 within the three months from the date of the order.
ShriKrishna Prasad
Advocate
M-09470400813
