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Rahul Gandhi video: No coercive action against news anchor, SC tells states
Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan moved the court for quashing or clubbing the cases against him in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh as he feared arrest.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued an interim order restraining authorities from initiating any coercive action against Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan, who is facing multiple cases for presenting Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s remarks on the vandalisation of his office in Kerala in June as his statement on a tailor’s murder in Udaipur last week.
Ranjan is facing FIRs in Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. Both the journalist and channel have apologised for the misrepresentation.
A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari also issued a notice to the Centre, through the office of Attorney General K K Venugopal, and the three state governments on Ranjan’s plea seeking quashing of the FIRs pertaining to the telecast.
“There will be an interim order restraining the respondent authorities from taking coercive steps to take the petitioner into custody in connection with the telecast of the programme on July 1,” the bench said.
Gandhi last month called the SFI activists who vandalised his office in Kerala’s Wayanad district “children” and said he did not have any anger towards them. The channel, however, aired the comment as the Congress leader’s remarks towards the accused in the brutal killing of a Hindu tailor by two Muslim men in Udaipur.
On Tuesday, the Noida Police arrested Ranjan in connection with a case filed against him – a move that came after a team of Chhattisgarh Police attempted to arrest the journalist in a similar case. A minor scuffle also broke out between the two sides.
Ranjan was arrested and later released on bail, Noida Police had said in a statement, adding that the sections against him are bailable offences.
The journalist later moved the top court through law firm Karanjawala & Co, seeking clubbing of the multiple cases lodged against him. He maintained that his error was unintentional and at best, covered under the Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995 and Programming Rules
He also pointed out that he and the channel had apologised for the mistake and the show was taken off air.
Appearing for the journalist, senior advocate Sidharth Luthra said his client was facing warrants in two states and was also in the custody of Uttar Pradesh Police despite apologising for the mistake. The said video was handled by two junior employees of Zee News who have since resigned from the organisation, he added.
The bench told Luthra a notice had to be served to the respondents as the matter was taken up for the first time.
