Page 24 - 30JUNE2019E

SC orders release of journalist

held over social media post

While granting freelance journalist Prashant Kanjia a bail in the
t a time when the police machin-
ery in Uttar Pradesh has com- case of posting a tweet and a Facebook post against UP CM Yogi
pletely failed to contain alarm- Adityanath, the court asked the government why was he arrested
ingly escalating heinous crimes and under what provisions, reports muDit mathur
Aagainst minor girls in the entire
state, it has devised a diversionary strategy to tweets in the social media. journalists have not approached the apex court
please the angry chief minister Yogi Adityanath The recent arrests of two journalists and a yet.
by targeting his critics in media adopting blatant channel head and sealing of the NOIDA based The wife of the journalist Jagisha Arora had
unconstitutional tactics to muzzle the freedom office of Nation Live channel sparked nation- challenged the unlawful detention of her hus-
to express fairly, freely and fearlessly. Uphold- wide protests against the retaliatory and arbi- band Prashant Kanojia by Uttar Pradesh Police
ing Fundamental Rights under Articles 19, 21 trary suo moto police action to please the po- and subsequently remanding him under judi-
under the Constitution being non-negotiable a litical bosses. The arrest of Delhi based journalist cial custody till 22nd June, 2019 before Supreme
vacation bench of apex court ordered immedi- Prashant Kanojia and the editor and head of a Court through a habeas corpus petition. UP Po-
ate release of journalist Prashant Kanojia from NOIDA-based television channel, Nation Live lice had raided his residence in Delhi without
judicial custody on bail. “We don’t appreciate his – Anuj Shukla and Ishika Singh- by the Uttar adhering to procedure of informing local police
tweets but he cannot be put behind bars for this,” Pradesh Police. and taken away him to Lucknow without any
opined the bench. Prashant has been accused of re-tweeting a transit remand as an FIR registered against him
The vacation bench of Justices In- post on Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adi- by a sub-inspector at Hazratganj police station
dira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi observed tyanath on the social media and the Nation Live on June 7 night under section 500 IPC and Sec-
that Kanojia’s arrest and remand were head and editor have been charged with having tion 67 of Information Technology Act. The FIR
illegal and went against personal liberty. The disclose offences that the accused made “objec-
Bench also turns downed the pleas of alterna- a vacation bench tionable comments against the Chief Minister
tive remedy advanced by Additional Solicitor and tried to malign his image. Subsequently
General Vikramajit Banerjee appearing for Uttar of Justices indira after detention the investigation officer added
Pradesh. He submitted since the remand order banerjee and ajay more offences under Section 505 of the IPC (for
have been passed by the Judicial Magistrate in Rastogi called spreading rumors) were added and Section 66 of
the matter, and as such, a habeas corpus petition kanojia’s arrest as the IT Act was replaced by Section 67 (vulgarity).”
under Article 32 petition should not be enter- ‘excessive’ but made Prashant Kanojia, who earlier worked with
tained and alternatively relegate the matter to “thewire.in,” had re-tweeted a video clip on his
High Court. On behalf of Kanojia and his wife clear that its order Twitter and Facebook where a woman is seen
this matter was presented by the advocates Ni- for his release on bail speaking to reporters of various media organi-
tya Ramakrishnan, Shruti Narayan and Shadan should not be read as sations outside the high security CM’s residence,
Farasat. approval of his social claiming that she had sent a marriage proposal
The apex court asserted its powers to do to Adityanath with whom she had been in regu-
complete justice in the matter under Article 142 media posts against lar connected through video chatting for over a
of the Constitution and entertained the petition uttar pradesh Cm yogi year.
in view of the excessiveness of the action taken adityanath The unlawful arrest of Prashant Kanojia re-
resulting in glaring case of deprivation of lib- sulted in wide scale protests and anger all over
erty. The bench also made it clear that its order is aired a video on the UP chief minister followed the country and on social media forums. While
not to be construed as an approval of his posts/ with a panel discussion on it. The news channel condemning the police action being high-hand-

tehelka / 30 june 2019 24 www.tehelka.com