The apex court today barred any agency from arresting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and six journalists in a case related to Republic day violence.
In cases relating to their tweets in connection with the Republic Day tractor rally violence in New Delhi, the apex court today barred any agency from arresting Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and six journalists. The court said the cases will be taken up for hearing two weeks later.
Appearing for the Delhi police, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed any relief and wanted the case to be adjourned to tomorrow, while defence counsel Kapil Sibal sought an order saying “no conceive action till the Supreme Court takes up the case”.
The three-judge bench of Chief Justice Sharad A Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said: “We are issuing notice…nothing is going to happen.” The Supreme Court was hearing petitions filed by Mr Tharoor, along with those of journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Vinod K Jose, Paresh Nath, and Anant Nath, seeking to squash the cases registered against them.
Under laws related to sedition, promotion of enmity, and criminal conspiracy, all of them were booked for their tweets that accused the Delhi police of killing a farmer during the tractor rally in the national capital on Republic Day.
FIRs have been registered against them in five states.
Editors Guild, in a statement on cases filed against them, had said: “The journalists have been specifically targeted for reporting the accounts pertaining to the death of one of the protestors on their personal social media handles as well as those of the publications they lead and represent. It must be noted that on the day of the protest and high action, several reports were emerging from eyewitnesses on the ground as well as from the police, and therefore it was only natural for journalists to report all the details as they emerged. This is in line with established norms of journalistic practice.”
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