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Hours after Supreme Court order, journalist gets reprieve in sedition case
In all the FIRs, Chopra was booked under sections 124-A (sedition), 295-A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings), and 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the IPC.
TV journalist Aman Chopra on Wednesday became the first person to get relief in a sedition case, hours after the Supreme Court stayed the registration of FIRs, ongoing probes and coercive measures across the country until an “appropriate forum” of the government re-examined the colonial-era penal law.
The court’s verdict on the contentious law has also prompted the counsel for Jawaharlal Nehru University student Sharjeel Imam, who is in judicial custody since 2020 in another sedition case, to move Delhi high court for his client’s release.
Taking note of the top court’s order, the Rajasthan high court directed the state police not to probe allegations against Network 18 journalist Aman Chopra under Section 124A (sedition) of Indian Penal Code in a case over a television show he hosted last month.
A bench of justice Dinesh Mehta, however, directed the anchor to appear for questioning before Dungarpur police on Monday from 11 am to 5 pm.
The court, which on Tuesday first stayed Chopra’s arrest in connection with an FIR registered in Dungarpur district, further extended the stay till May 20.
The high court’s direction to the state police came after Chopra’s counsel, Siddharth Luthra, informed it about the Supreme Court verdict.
In its order, a copy of which HT has seen, the high court said police would be “free to pray for further opportunity for investigation (if required) on the next date of hearing, which is being fixed as May 20”.
“Till then, the petitioner shall not be arrested in relation to the present FIR registered at police station Bichhiwada in Dungarpur or in relation to any other FIR filed or likely to be filed concerning the programme ‘Desh Nahi Jhukne Denge’ aired at 8.00 p.m. on April 22,” it added.
Three first information reports (FIRs) were registered in Dungarpur, Bundi and Alwar, respectively, against the journalist over a show he hosted on April 22 on the demolition of two temples in Rajgarh town of Alwar district during an anti-encroachment drive.
In all the FIRs, Chopra was booked under sections 124-A (sedition), 295-A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings), and 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the IPC.
On Saturday, the high court had granted the journalist interim protection from arrest in the FIRs registered in Bundi and Alwar districts.
Meanwhile, Imam’s counsel, Tanveer Ahmed Mir, said he will move Delhi high court seeking his client’s release.
Imam was booked under the sedition law over his alleged provocative speeches at Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Milia Islamia during the protests against the now Citizenship Amendment Bill and National Register of Citizens. He has been in judicial custody since January 28, 2020.
“We will file a fresh application before Justice Siddharth Mridul of Delhi high Court, who is already hearing the bail application and the challenge to the framing of charges,” Mir told HT.
