LONDON, ENGLAND, March 19, 2006: The BBC has said it paid an unspecified amount to settle a case filed by devotees of Hindu pontiff Jayendra Saraswathi against erroneous remarks by a leading Indian journalist in one of its radio shows. The remarks were made by Vinod Mehta, editor of Outlook magazine, in the BBC Radio 4 program called “A View From India,” broadcast in January this year. The program led to months of protests by devotees of the spiritual leader who was allegedly accused of some misdeeds by Mehta in the programme. Some of the remarks were then found to be erroneous by the BBC’s Editorial Complaint Unit (ECU). A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC can confirm that it settled the case on an amicable basis and made a contribution to legal costs.” The amount was not specified, but reports say that the BBC paid US$7,024 for an out-of-court settlement.
Jayendra Saraswathi, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, was arrested in 2004 on charges of the murder of Sankararaman, the manager of the Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kancheepuram. In its quarterly report for October-November 2005, the ECU said that it investigated two similar complaints of bias and inaccuracy in Mehta’s account about the Sankararaman murder case and his alleged involvement. The ECU ruled: “The Unit found no evidence of bias. The talk made clear that the allegations against Sri Jayendra were denied and put the matter in an appropriate political context. “However, Jayendra’s supposed reaction to one of the murder victim’s letters (which allegedly led to his inciting a follower to arrange for the murder) was recounted as fact, whereas it is disputed that Sri Jayendra was aware of the letter at that stage. “This, taken together with the incorrect statement that the victim had been an employee of Jayendra’s organization at the time of his death, tended to exaggerate the substance of the case against Jayendra. “The talk was also in error in referring to allegations of child molestation in connection with Sri Jayendra. As to allegations of sexual harassment levelled against Jayendra, the statement that “there were so many complaints from women that the police had to constitute an all-woman team to look into the charges” was correct to the extent that the charges were being investigated by an all-woman team. “However, the Unit was able to identify only three instances under investigation by the police, so it was misleading to give the impression that the police had received complaints from large numbers of women.” A write-up on the BBC website based on the controversial talk has also been reportedly withdrawn.