ABP News Fires Three Digital Staff After False Report on Folk Singer Neha Singh Rathore

ABP News dismissed three members of its digital video team on Monday, 19 October 2026, after its digital platform published a false report about Bhojpuri folk singer Neha Singh Rathore, BestMediaInfo and the Hindi media-news site Bhadas4Media reported. According to BestMediaInfo, they were the head of digital videos and two shift in-charges, one of them responsible for YouTube Shorts.

ABP News has not issued a public statement on the dismissals; the reports cite people familiar with the action.

What happened

On 17 October, ABP Network's digital platform carried a video of about nine seconds whose headline made a false claim linking the singer to a police raid. The network later said the report was factually incorrect, regretted it and apologised on its official social media account.

Rathore rejected the apology, saying regret could not undo the damage to her reputation, and said she would take legal action, The Free Press Journal reported. Actor and MP Kangana Ranaut also criticised the coverage.

Women's commission steps in

The National Commission for Women took suo motu cognisance of the matter. Its chairperson, Vijaya Rahatkar, asked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to ensure action through the relevant regulatory and self-regulatory bodies, sought an action-taken report within 15 days, and called for safeguards against the character assassination and online harassment of women, according to BestMediaInfo.

Why newsrooms are watching

Short-form video teams publish at high speed, often with less editorial review than television bulletins or articles. A single unverified headline can reach millions before it is corrected, and Indian defamation law holds the publisher responsible. The case is likely to sharpen scrutiny of how broadcasters' digital arms check facts before posting.