NEW DELHI: In a major relieve to Zee TV news anchor Rohit Ranjan, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered the authorities not to take any coercive steps against him in the multiple FIRs lodged against him for airing an alleged doctored video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari also issued notice to the Central government through the office of the Attorney General on Rohit Ranjan’s plea on the last day of the court’s summer vacation.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Rohit Ranjan, told the apex court that multiple FIRs were lodged against him for the same allegation. Ranjan prayed for various reliefs, including quashing the FIRs filed against him or clubbing them together for a single trial.
Luthra had sought urgent hearing from the Supreme Court on Wednesday, noting that he was arrested and released on bail on Tuesday while the Chhattisgarh police wants to arrest him. He pleaded relief as otherwise Ranjan will be in repeated custodies due to the multiple FIRs on the same subject.
The lawyer told the court that Ranjan has already apologized for a mistake in a show he runs on the TV channel. Rahul had spoken to journalists in Kerala on an attack on his office there, but he was quoted in Ranjan’s programme that he attacked incident of the killing of a tailor in Udaipur.
Ranjan on his show said, “In our show DNA, Rahul Gandhi’s statement was taken in the wrong context by linking it to the Udaipur incident, it was a human error for which our team apologises.”
The Congress has alleged in the FIRs filed in many states that Ranjan was running a doctored video of Rahul Gandhi and accused him of intentionally linked Rahul Gandhi’s statements on the vandalization of his office to the Udaipur incident in an attempt to incite public sentiments.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, while referring to the attack on his Wayanad office, had said, “The children who did this have acted in an irresponsible way. They are kids, forgive them.”
On the Chhattisgarh Police reaching his residence in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday, he tweeted that “Chhattisgarh police is standing outside my house to arrest me without informing the local police. Is it legal?” He tagged Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, SSP Ghaziabad and ADG Zone Lucknow in his tweet.
Responding to Ranjan’s tweet, the Raipur Police, Chhatisgarh, posted on its Twitter handle, “There is no such rule to inform. Still, now they are informed. The police team has shown you the court’s warrant of arrest. You should in fact cooperate, join in the investigation and put your defence in court.”
