Bengaluru: Mahesh Murthy is a venture capitalist. He is a big name in the media industry as well as he happens to be an investor in the web portal Newslaundry. 

Three years ago, several stories detailing Mahesh Murthy’s alleged sexual misconduct were reported. 

factordaily.com reported on the issue in an in-depth manner. 

The web portal had reported accounts of six women -- three went on record -- dating from 2003 to 2016: 

 

The stories also revealed transgressions of the investor against authors, reporters, HR manager and woman executive in IT firms.  

 

 

 

But then, the accused, taking offence to the publication of stories, had gone running to the Delhi high court, seeking justice.

He had even filed a defamation case against the ones who dared to bring his sexual shenanigans in the public domain and punish him. He had filed a defamation case against 18 such daring souls. 

It is also worthy of note that besides FactorDaily, journalists and executives at publications such as Deccan Chronicle, YourStory, and SheThePeople were named in the suit.

It would be of further interest to note that several women who were victims of the sexual misdemeanour of the accused, did not feel comfortable narrating their experiences in the public domain. 

Factordaily notes thus, quoting Mishra, who reported the stories: “Several other instances had come before us but the women were not comfortable having their bitter experiences brought out in public. What was amazing was that these were independent accounts and the women didn’t know one another.”

However, the Delhi high court in its 2017 interim order had restrained the publication of any allegations or complaints of sexual harassment made against the accused Mahesh Murthy. 

But in its latest order, the Delhi high court has observed thus: “The said defendants have a right to exercise their right of freedom of speech. If these incidents and claims of the said defendants are in trial proved to be false, the plaintiff would have a right to claim damages.” 
The court further notes: “The plaintiff has failed to make out a prima facie case. In my opinion, balance of convenience is also not in favour of the plaintiff.” 

Interestingly, as the court order is out, another woman Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, a documentary filmmaker has put out a tweet saying she will talk about his misdemeanour. 

 

Well, many on the social media have revealed more details about him. 

 

MyNation tried getting a reaction from Raman Kirpal, the Managing Editor and Manisha Pandey, the Executive Editor of Newslaundry, but nothing fructified. However, we got in touch with Abhinandan Sekhri, the co-founder and CEO of Newslaundry and sought his reactions on the issue. 

He welcomed the order and said, “That’s great..”