Hyderabad TV CEO held for abusing businessman

Hyderabad: A local TV/web channel’s CEO was arrested for abusing a businessman and his family on air. The accused Whatsup TV channel’s CEO Shahid Qureshi also allegedly tried to extort money from the victims by blackmailing them with the content before airing it. 

Saifabad police booked a case against him for extortion bid and for telecasting offensive content. The complainants, Saberi Brothers, alleged that Qureshi aired on the TV channel seven episodes containing highly offensive content describing their relatives as “thieves and criminals”. In the programme, Shahid Qureshi had stated that the Saberi brothers cheated Bollywood celebrities like Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan.  Earlier, the CEO’s brother, Kashif Qureshi of Big Boss fame, had a fight with the Saberi brothers, who now allege that the programme was aired due to this.

The Saberi brothers, who run businesses in the city like ‘Saberi’s Opticals’,  have also filed a Rs 10 crore-defamation suit against the TV channel and the accused Shahid Qureshi. “We have arrested the accused and produced him before court. A case has been booked against him under Section 385 and 66A of the IT Act,” said inspector K. Poorna Chander.

One of the complainants, Hamed Saberi, director of Trance Techmedia India, alleged that all the seven episodes aired by the Shahid Qureshi were aimed at defaming his family. “Days before airing the programme, Shahid Qureshi approached us and asked for Rs 50 lakh. When we refused, he aired the programme and circulated it through social media and WhatsApp,” said Hasnain Saberi, a businessman.

We don’t have even a single economic offence case against us. But this channel was calling us white collar criminals,” he added. The accused, Shahid Qureshi, had launched the new channel Whatsup a few months ago. He was anchoring the programmes targeting the Saberi brothers.