The Supreme Court also barred authorities from taking him in their custody.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted some relief to Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan from the multiple FIRs filed against him for playing a doctored clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and asked the authorities to not take any coercive action against him. The court also barred them from taking him in custody.
The Supreme Court also issued a notice, including to the centre, on Ranjan’s plea seeking security for himself, his family members and his colleagues associated with the programme in which the doctored video clip was aired. The Zee News anchor had played a video in which Rahul Gandhi was heard describing those attacking a party office in Kerala as children and said he had no ill-will against them.
However, Zee News said Rahul Gandhi had made the comment about the killers of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal who was beheaded for supporting ousted BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma for her controversial remark on Prophet Muhammad.
Earlier, on Tuesday, a police team from Chhattisgarh had reached Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh but before they could arrest him, the Noida Police arrested him and released him on bail at night.
The FIR lodged against Ranjan includes Indian Penal Code sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 467 (forgery), 469 (forgery to harm reputation), 504 (intentional insult).
The Zee News anchor had moved the Supreme Court urging a hearing on his plea seeking protection from coercive action for allegedly playing a doctored clip of Rahul Gandhi. A day after the video was aired, Rohit Ranjan had apologised for mistakenly playing the clip out of context by linking it with the Udaipur murder case.
