Former union minister and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor faces sedition charge along with six other journalists for peddling fake news regarding the farmers’ tractor rally on January 26 and instigating them to cause riots.
The FIR lodged at a police station in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, names Tharoor and the six journalists referring to the incident which led to the death of a farmer during the violence on January 26. As per the complainant, Tharoor and senior journalists posted tweets which implied that Delhi Police shot a protestor which led to his death.
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According to Delhi Police and the video footage available, it has been proven that the protestor lost his life after his tractor rammed into the police barricade and turned turtle.
FIR lodged against Shashi Tharoor and senior journalists are under Section 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), Section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), Section 298 (utterings, words, etc. with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person), Section 506 (criminal intimidation) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC besides Section 66 of the IT Act.
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The Editors Guild of India has condemned the “intimidating manner” in the police have registered FIRs against senior journalists for reporting on the farmers’ protests stating these FIRs are an “attempt to intimidate, harass, and stifle free media”.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Editors Guild of India condemns the intimidating manner in which UP and MP police have registered FIRs against senior journalists, for reporting on farmers’ protests in Delhi on Jan 26. EGI finds these FIRs as an attempt to intimidate, harass, and stifle free media. <a href="https://news.abplive.com/news/india/tractor-rally-protestor-who-died-at-ito-had-returned-from-australia-to-celebrate-his-wedding-1441350">pic.twitter.com/Mf3albnYvs</a></p>— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) <a >January 29, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Meanwhile, the identity of the agitator who died has been ascertained as 27-year-old Navreet Singh. This protester had returned from Australia to his hometown in Uttar Pradesh to celebrate his recent wedding but fate took an unfortunate turn.