Priyanka Gandhi slams BJP for FIR on journalists, politician

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Pic/AFP

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has slammed the government for registering an FIR against journalists and a politician who allegedly tweeted false news on January 26 on the violence which occurred during the tractor march.

In a statement released on Twitter, Priyanka Gandhi said,"It's dangerous that the BJP government is threatening journalists and public representative by registering FIRs. The respect of democratic values is the responsibility of the government. Creating an atmosphere of fear in a democracy is like poison."

The Noida police on Thursday booked Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor, journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Vinod K Jose (Caravan) and others for sedition. An FIR lodged at the Sector-20 police station on Thursday stated that they were booked for tweeting and spreading fake news pertaining to the death of a farmer during the tractor rally on January 26, 2021.

The FIR also names Zafar Agha, the Group Editor-in-Chief of National Herald, and Anant Nath, the Editor of Caravan.

The politicians and journalists have been booked under sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 153B (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 295A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 298 (Uttering, words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (Criminal Intimidation), 505(2) (Statements conducing to public mischief), 124-A (Sedition), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 120-B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

The Delhi Police, meanwhile, have reportedly released a video showing a protester speeding and running over barricades with his tractor near ITO, resulting in the vehicle overturning. A post-mortem report revealed that the protester had died owing to an accident.

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