Prema Sridevi

Prema Sridevi (born 2 Feb 1982) is an Indian journalist. She was associated with The Times Group for 12 years until 2016, becoming News Editor of its English news channel Times Now. She joined Republic TV in 2017 as editor for news and special projects, and resigned in 2019 to start her own independent news media venture.[1] On 15 August 2020, she launched her independent digital news media brand The Probe.[2]

Prema Sridevi
Sridevi in 2019
Born (1982-02-02) 2 February 1982
NationalityIndian
Alma materMount Carmel College, Bangalore
Commits Institute of Journalism and Mass Communication, Bangalore
OccupationJournalist
Years active2005 – present
Parent(s)S. Rajasekharan Nair, R Sridevi

Education

Prema Sridevi was born in Bangalore, Karnataka and is originally from Kerala. She did her Bachelor of Arts from Mount Carmel College, Bangalore and completed her Masters in Mass Communication from Commits Institute of Journalism and Mass Communications, Bangalore.[3]

Career

Prema Sridevi Joined Times Now in June 2005 prior to the channel's launch on 23 January 2006 in partnership with Reuters. She worked as the Bureau Chief of the Kerala bureau of Times Now until 2010 after which she moved to Times Now's Delhi NCR division to work as a Correspondent under its Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami. She resigned in 2016 to join Goswami’s media venture Republic TV. She was appointed as the Editor, Special Projects and Head of Special Investigations Team at Republic TV. She resigned in 2019 to start her own Independent news media venture. By mid 2019, she launched her company Fourth Estate Newscorp Private Limited. On 15 August 2020, she launched her independent digital news media brand The Probe.[1]

Reportage

Times Now

While with Times Now, Prema came into limelight for her series of news coverage on the Ishrat Jahan encounter case, which is an ongoing criminal case in the Indian State of Gujarat. In this case, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch and members of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of Ahmedabad were accused of jointly having carried out a staged "encounter killing" of four people on 15 June 2004.

Her story on Operation Rajya sabha, on how Rajya sabha seats in the Karnataka elections was up for sale was taken note by the Election Commission of India.[4]

Republic TV

When with Republic TV, Prema wrote a series of stories on the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar, an Indian businesswoman and the wife of Indian former diplomat and politician Shashi Tharoor.[5][6][7] Republic TV broadcast her taped conversations with Sunanda Pushkar and Sunanda’s assistant Narayan Singh hours before Sunanda's death. Bennett Coleman & Co. Ltd. (The Times Group), lodged a complaint against Prema Sridevi and Arnab Goswami accusing them of copyright infringement.[8] Following this, Prema did over 2 dozen stories on the mysterious death of Sunanda Pushkar. In May 2018, Sunanda's husband Shashi Tharoor was chargesheeted by the Delhi Police for abetment to suicide.[9][10][11]

She is also noted for the sting operations on men allegedly belonging to the ISIS India network. Her sting of the ISIS operatives in May 2017, which was aired on Republic TV was taken note by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The NIA requested her to share the videotape of the sting operations and after a year the NIA went onto arrest one of the ISIS operatives Abdullah Basit who was stung by Prema Sridevi. The NIA also conducted the voice samples of the journalist and the ISIS operative. The matter is now before the honourable court.[12][13][14]

Prema’s story titled “The Vadra Papers” exposed the alleged tax evasion of Robert Vadra’s firm. Following the story, Robert Vadra sent a legal notice to Prema Sridevi and Republic TV’s Editor in Chief Arnab Goswami over "defamatory statements" made against his firm.[15]

Prema's follow-up investigations into the Bofors scandal led to a revealing interview with Michael Hershman - who is the President of the Fairfax Group, co-founder Transparency International - in which, he hinted that powerful politicians exist in India who risk being identified in Bofors Scandal. Prema Sridevi's Hershman interview was quoted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its affidavit before the Court to request the Court to reopen the Bofors Case based on the startling revelations.[16][17]

References
  1. "Republic World Website". Republic World.
  2. "The Probe Official Website".
  3. "Commits Institute of Journalism and Mass Communication". Retrieved 28 April 2019.
  4. "Seats For Sale : Operation Rajya Sabha". 2 June 2016 – via YouTube.
  5. Express News Service (8 May 2017). "Journalist claims tapes on Sunanda Pushkar's death handed to cops, Delhi police denies it". newindianexpress. Retrieved 8 July 2019.
  6. "Arnab Goswami On Sunanda Murder Tapes - Super Exclusive | Part 1". 4 September 2017 – via YouTube.
  7. "Sunanda Pushkar Murder tape 1". 8 May 2017 – via YouTube.
  8. Scroll Staff. "Times Group files complaint against Arnab Goswami accusing Republic TV of theft". Scroll.in.
  9. BBC India (14 May 2018). "India MP Shashi Tharoor charged over wife's death". bbc. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  10. indiatoday (4 February 2019). "Sunanda Pushkar death case-Trial of Shashi Tharoor to begin on February 21". indiatoday. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  11. indianexpress (1 September 2019). "Charge Shashi Tharoor with murder in Pushkar case-Delhi Police to court". indiatoday. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  12. "NIA Arrests ISIS Kingpin Abdullah Basit In Hyderabad". 12 August 2018 – via YouTube.
  13. "Republic Stings ISIS Part-1". 16 May 2017 – via YouTube.
  14. "NIA Court sends ISIS suspect Abdullah Basit to 11 day remand- The Economic Times". 13 August 2018 – via The Economic Times Website.
  15. ""Robert Is Scared": Arnab Goswami on Vadra's Legal Notice". The Quint. 19 July 2018.
  16. "Powerful Politicians Exist In India Today Who Took Bofors Money". The Republic. 5 September 2018.
  17. "UPA Stonewalled Bofors Probe-CBI Admits To Supreme Court". The Republic. 2 November 2018.
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