Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Aug 5: Rajnish Ahuja, editor of Zee News, has been given protection from arrest by the Supreme Court in connection with first information reports (FIRs) filed against him for airing a false news story that claimed Congressman Rahul Gandhi had approved of the recent killing of a man in Udaipur.
The petition filed by anchor Rohit Ranjan should be tagged with the notice that was issued in the Editor’s plea by the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and JB Pardiwala.
“There shall be no coercive action against the editor with respect to the FIRs registered or the future ones. Issue notice to the State of Rajasthan, State of Chhattisgarh and Union of India.”
Senior Attorney Siddharth Dave, who was representing the Editor, informed the court that FIRs had been filed against his client in Sikar, Rajasthan, and Raipur, Chattisgarh.
According to a news segment that was aired on the channel, Rahul Gandhi allegedly remarked that the murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal Teji in Udaipur should be pardoned. Gandhi was not speaking about the murderers of Udaipur; rather, he was referring to people who had damaged his office at Wayanad, Kerala.
An apology from the channel was then published.
With respect to cases brought against Rohit Ranjan, the anchor of the questioned telecast, in several different jurisdictions, the Court ordered last month that no coercive action be taken against him.
However, the court has noted that the investigation into the initial FIR filed at Bani Park, District Jaipur, Rajasthan, will go on.
