Hindutva organisation Sanathan Sanstha’s civil defamation suit seeking 10 crores from Juggernaut Books has been dismissed by a court in Goa. It is pertinent to note that Sanathan Sanstha’s members have been linked to the murders of rationalists such as Gauri Lankesh, Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare and MM Kalburgi.
The defamation suit filed in 2018 claimed damages against publisher Juggernaut Books and author Dhirendra K Jha for the publication and sale of a book titled Shadow Armies: Fringe Organizations and Foot Soldiers of Hindutva (2017). Advocates Satyajit Sarna and Rahul Kukreja represented the publisher and the author.
Recommended
“I feel a sense of relief and vindication. Persons who feel deeply uncomfortable by my research and my work attempted to silence me by alleging defamation and unleashing a punishing process on me and my publisher. But truth is a defence against defamation and, in this case, justice and the truth have thankfully prevailed,” Dhirendra Jha said. The publisher of Juggernaut Books, Chiki Sarkar, and CEO, Simran Khara, said “At our core we believe that books, authors and ideas must be defended against attempts to silence, censor, ban and injunct. It can be intimidating to face multi-million-dollar lawsuits but in this instance at least the courts have really come through for us and we are overjoyed by the judgment.”
Featured Image: Catchnews