The Gautam Buddha Nagar Police lodged an FIR on Thursday against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and senior journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Anant Nath, Paresh Nath, and Vinod K. Jose for inciting violence on January 26 through their social media posts.
In the FIR, registered in Sector 20 police station of Noida, the police have invoked sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), 153 B, 295A (malicious acts to outrage religious feelings), 298 (deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), 504, 506, 124A, 120B (criminal conspiracy) and Section 66 of the IT Act 2000.
The complainant Arpit Mishra alleged that Mr. Tharoor and senior journalists posted misleading tweets wherein they said police had shot dead a protestor. They deliberately vitiated the atmosphere so that large scale riots could happen in the city, he alleged. He said in his complaint that the accused tweeted out of bias and put the security of the country and its people in jeopardy.
The FIR further said that the accused tweeted in a preplanned manner to create tension among different communities. They did it to incite protestors to indulge in violence for their political benefit, it said.
It also charged the accused of denigrating the image of the police force on Republic Day.
Mr Mishra wanted the said tweets to be removed from social media sites as they had been forwarded multiple times.
