India Today Takes Rajdeep Sardesai Off-Air For A Month For Misreporting, Cuts One-Month Pay: Reports

Several news publications reported on Thursday (28 January) that journalist and news anchor Rajdeep Sardesai has been taken off-air for a month by India Today, where he is currently working as consulting editor.

The channel is supposed to have taken this decision after Sardesai, who has several decades of experience in television news media, gave out false information in the middle of violence in New Delhi on Republic Day.

As Swarajya earlier reported, Sardesai said in a live video as well as a post from his Twitter account that a farmer had died of police firing on 26 January afternoon.

The Delhi police countered this immediately to other reporters, saying that the farmer had died of an accident when his speeding tractor that was attempting to break police barricades, toppled over.

The Delhi police also released videos showing the tractor toppling over. Later, police from Uttar Pradesh where the farmer lived, said that his post-mortem report showed no bullet injuries.

However, he came under huge criticism on the social media for his earlier misreporting done at a sensitive time.

There is not much information available in public domain about the decision of India Today regarding Sardesai, but reports say the channel has also decided to not pay Sardesai for a month. Most reports have attributed the information to “sources” in the channel.

Sardesai himself has not commented on the matter through his verified Twitter account, where he has nine million followers, or otherwise.

Speculations are also rife that Sardesai has offered to resign from his post.