On Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Police registered a FIR against The Wire Founder-Editor Siddharth Varadarajan for spreading fake news against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The police have booked Siddharth Varadarajan over comments on Twitter claiming that the day Tablighi Jamaat held its event in Delhi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had insisted that a Ram Navami fair will take place as usual. The FIR also mentioned his remark, questioning Adityanath's participation at a religious ceremony at the Ramjanmabhoomi site in Ayodhya during the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Mrityunjay Kumar, the media advisor to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, took to Twitter and said that despited the warning from the state government, Siddharth Varadarajan neither deleted the false article and neither apologised. And hence, an FIR has been registered against him.
The FIR referred to a tweet by Varadarajan which said, "On the day the Tablighi Jamaat event was held, Adityanath insisted a large Ram Navami fair planned for Ayodhya from March 25 to April 2 would proceed as usual and that 'Lord Ram would protect devotees from the coronavirus".
Later reacting to the FIR, a statement by the Founding Editors of The Wire said, "A bare perusal of the FIR shows that it is politically motivated and the offences invoked are not even remotely made out. The registration of an FIR is a blatant attack on the freedom of the press." "The government of Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh does not seem to have learnt anything despite the strictures passed against it by the Supreme Court in June 2019 when the court ordered the release of the journalist Prashant Kanojia whom the state had illegally arrested. The right to liberty is a fundamental right and non-negotiable, the court had said."
Faizabad Kotwali police station in Uttar Pradesh registered an FIR under sections 188 (disobeying an order duly promulgated by public servant) and 505(2) (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code, saying Varadarajan had made "disreputable" comment against the chief minister.
