UP Police Lodges FIR against 'The Wire' for Remarks against Adityanath, Editor Calls it "Attack on Press Freedom"

New Delhi, April 2, 2020:

Uttar Pradesh Police have lodged two First Information Reports (FIRs) against the Founding Editor of The Wire, Siddharth Varadarajan, on charges of allegedly wrongly attributing a quote to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the Ram Navami festival controversy.

Both the FIRs were lodged in Ayodhya district, the cases were booked under Sections 188 (disobedience to order) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code. One of the FIRs also curiously invokes Section 66D of the IT Act, which deals with punishment for cheating by personation by using computer resource.

The FIRs are related to an article published in The Wire on March 31 in the backdrop of the controversy over the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi. The line in the article that was found objectionable by the UP police allegedly linked Mr. Adityanath to saying that Lord Ram would protect devotees from the coronavirus.

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The FIRs accused Varadarajan of spreading discord, enmity ad rumours through his post. It also accused Varadarajan of making “undignified” comments against Mr. Adityanath.

Media Advisor to Yogi Adityanath, Mritunjay Kumar, tweeted, "मुख्यमंत्री योगी आदित्यनाथ जी के नाम पर झूठ फैलाने के आरोप में

 

" data-focusable="true">@svaradarajan पर अयोध्या में एक और FIR, आशा करता हूँ दो-दो केस लड़ने के लिए इनके पास डोनेशन होगी। (One more FIR has been lodged against Siddharth Varadrajan for circulating false news about UP CM Yogi Adityanath. I hope he has donations to fight both these cases."

 

A statement by the Founding Editors of The Wire reads, "We have come to know through social media that an FIR has been registered under Section 188 and 505(2) of the IPC against The Wire by the UP Police in Faizabad. A bare perusal of the FIR shows that the offences invoked are not even remotely made out and that it is aimed at stifling legitimate expression and factual information. The UP police seems to think its job is to go after those who criticise the CM. The registration of an FIR is a blatant attack on the freedom of the press."