The Mumbai Police on Friday registered a First Information Report (FIR) against Republic TV’s editorial team for allegedly committing offences amounting to incitement to disaffection among members of the police force against Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh and for defaming the Mumbai police’s image.
The complainant, sub-inspector Shashikant Pawar at the Social Media Lab, registered the FIR with the Special Branch 1 NM Joshi Marg police under Section 3 (penalty for causing disaffection) of the Police (Incitement to Disaffection) Act along with Sections 500 (punishment for defamation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
The FIR is lodged against the editorial staff and newsroom in-charge for the concerned report getting aired — Sagarika Mitra, deputy news editor, Shivani Gupta, anchor/senior associate editor, Shawan Sen, deputy editor, Niranjan Narayanswamy, executive editor.
The complaint states, “The accused by airing the concerned report have committed offences amounting to incitement to disaffection among members of the police force and defaming Mumbai Police.”
The FIR mentions that according to Mr. Pawar, on October 22, the news had these statements, “Republic has exclusive information that the rebellion against the Mumbai top cop, within Mumbai police is now growing”; “So now our rebellion is also brewing within the Mumbai police itself, this is of course a matter of their own institutional credibility”; “Param Bir Singh is hell bent on tarnishing the image of the Mumbai police”; and “There is now a rebellion of swords brewing from his subordinates”.
