Trinamool Congress leader and Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra has filed a criminal defamation case against Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary for alleging that her June 25, 2019, speech on the 'Seven Signs of Fascism' was plagiarized.
Metropolitan Magistrate Preeti Parewa taking cognizance of the complaint has listed the matter for hearing on July 20, 2019.
Advocate Shadaan Farasat, appearing for Moitra submitted that her speech was inspired by a Holocaust poster in a United States museum.
The poster contained 14 signs of early fascism.
"...it is a widely popular poster...she takes (seven) signs (of early fascism) and applies them to India', it was argued.
The counsel further added that Moitra "clearly attributed" the source as she stated that the signs were taken from the said poster.
However, Zee News' Sudhir Chaudhary ran a broadcast stating that Mahua Moitra had plagiarised her speech delivered in Parliament.
In his broadcast, Chaudhary called Moitra’s speech ‘hateful’ and alleged that her speech was plagiarised from a 2017 article which spoke about ‘12 early warning signs of fascism’ in Trump’s America.
After hearing the counsel, Judge Parewa agreed to record the pre-summoning evidence of Mahua Moitra on July 20, 2019.
On July 4, 2019, Moitra had even submitted a breach of privilege motion in Lok Sabha against Chaudhary. “Sir, under Rule 225, I have given a breach of privilege notice against Zee TV and its editor, Sudhir Chaudhary for falsely reporting my maiden address in this august House,” she said.
However, Speaker Om Birla disallowed it.
