‘Objectionable’ Post Against CM Yogi: Supreme Court to Hear Plea Against Journalist’s Arrest Today; 3 More Held

Three days after the UP police filed FIRs against three journalists on alleged defamation of CM Yogi Adityanath in a morphed video, SC to hear the plea against the case.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear a plea by the wife of journalist Prashant Kanojia, against his arrest for allegedly defaming the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on social media. Terming the arrest by UP police ‘illegal’ and ‘unconstitutional’, Kanojia’s wife, Jagisha Arora, had moved top court, demanding an urgent hearing in the case.

The petition claimed that the police had not produced any warrant of arrest. Advocate Nithya Ramakrishnan produced the matter before a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi on behalf of Arora.

Meanwhile, on Monday, UP police filed fresh complaints against three new journalists for allegedly uploading morphed photographs of the chief minister. Over the past three days, a total of six journalists have been arrested over the same issue under  IPC section 500 and 66 IT Act.

Kanojia was arrested on Sunday at Hazratganj police station for allegedly uploading a video on Twitter where a woman was making claims about a marriage proposal to the Uttar Pradesh chief. He also allegedly made “objectionable comments” on the video against Adityanath.

Along with him, Ishika Singh, head of a Noida-based news channel and Anuj Shukla, an editor of the channel that aired the video were also arrested.

On Monday, the Gorakhpur police had arrested another person, Raju Singh, for allegedly posting a morphed picture of the chief minister with a Kanpur-based woman speaking to various media organisations about the marriage proposal.

The police have registered new FIRs in Basti and Sant Kabir Nagar and are tracing two more persons who are allegedly escaping the arrest. The Noida-based channel conducted a debate on June 6 in which a woman had allegedly made defamatory statements against Adityanath, officials said.