The Allahabad High Court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to the founding editor of news portal ‘The Wire’ Siddharth Vardarajan in the case of allegedly mis-attributing a quote to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on the Ram Navami festival controversy.
The U.P. police had lodged two FIRs against the senior journalist in Ayodhya district in April.
The cases were lodged 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”.
While granting anticipatory bail to Mr. Vardarajan, Justice Chandra Dhari Singh found no merit in the State’s arguments, among them that the journalist could flee India as he held an American passport.
Additional Advocate General of U.P. raised objection that Mr. Varadarajan held an American passport and therefore, there was a chance of him fleeing India. The government also argued that the chargesheet had been filed by the police after completion of investigation and cognizance was taken on the said chargesheet by the concerned Court. So, there is was reasonable apprehension of arrest of the journalist in the case.
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“I do not find any merit in the argument advanced by learned Additional Advocate General, as the law discussed above in several judgments clarify the situation,” the court said.
Mr. Varadarajan's counsel submitted that he was willing to cooperate with the investigation as well as the entire proceeding of the trial in the instant case. He was also submitted that “there is no possibility of fleeing as he has deep roots in the society, is a permanent resident of Delhi and is a reputed journalist.”
The case pertains to an article published in ‘The Wire’ on March 31 in the backdrop of the controversy over the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi. The line in the article found objectionable by the U.P. Police allegedly linked Mr. Adityanath to saying that Lord Ram would protect devotees from the coronavirus.
Mr. Varadarajan had tweeted the paragraph while sharing the news article. “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’,” he tweeted.
The following day, on April 1 in the afternoon, Mr. Varadarajan issued a clarification that Mr. Adityanath did not utter the words on Lord Ram saving devotees from the coronavirus. “I should clarify that it was Acharya Paramhans, Hindutva stalwart and head of the official Ayodhya temple trust, who said Ram would protect devotees from coronavirus, and not Adityanath, though he allowed a public event on 25/3 in defiance of the lockdown and took part himself,” Mr. Varadarajan tweeted.
The article on ‘The Wire’ was also edited with the clarification. “In an earlier version of the story, the quote about Ram saving devotees from the coronavirus was wrongly attributed to Yogi Adityanath. It was in fact said by Acharya Paramhans, head of the official Ram temple trust,” the article said.
The FIR lodged on the complaint of officer-in charge of Faizabad Kotwali Nitish Kumar Shrivastava accused Mr. Varadarajan of spreading discord, enmity and rumours through his post. It also accused Mr. Varadarajan of making “undignified” comments against Mr. Adityanath.
