Khare was at the centre of the storm when the newspaper reported on the easy access to Aadhaar data, as well as the public apology to Bikram Singh Majithia.
Chandigarh: Harish Khare, editor-in-chief of The Tribune, announced his resignation from the trust-run newspaper Thursday. He was appointed in April 2015 and joined the newspaper in June that year.
His term was to end in May this year. He was formerly the media adviser to previous Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Khare made the announcement during Thursday’s morning meeting with senior members of The Tribune staff. K.V. Prasad, head of the Delhi bureau of The Tribune is expected to take over as officiating editor, ThePrint has learnt.
The Tribune Trust is headed by Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra.
Earlier this year, The Tribune under Khare made headlines after an investigative report from Jalandhar showed how easy it was to access Aadhaar data.
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) denied the possibility and lodged an FIR, which named the reporter and the newspaper, in connection with alleged leak of the data. Khare stood his ground and backed the report.
On 29 October 2017, after The Tribune published an apology to former Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia for publishing two reports about his alleged links with drug lords, Khare had offered to quit in protest against the apology being reportedly forced upon him.
Facing a defamation case filed by Majithia, The Tribune had published a three column apology on its front page, which said Majithia was not involved in any drug trade and all allegations against him were unsubstantiated and incorrect.
However, instead of Khare, the then-president of The Tribune Trust, Justice (retd) S.S. Sodhi was asked to step down and replaced with Vohra. The apology to Majithia, however, was not withdrawn.