Amid high drama, Zee News anchor detained over fake Rahul Gandhi video

Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan was on Tuesday (July 5) taken into police custody from his residence near Delhi over a misleading video on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that was aired on the channel a few days ago.

In a tweet minutes before his arrest, Ranjan said that Chhattisgarh police was stationed outside his house to arrest him without informing the local police.

To this, the Raipur Police curtly tweeted that there is no such rule to inform in advance, adding that the court’s warrant against Ranjan should be enough for his arrest.

Also read: FIR in Chhattisgarh against BJP MPs for fake Rahul Gandhi video: Cong

“There is no such rule to inform. Still, now they are informed. Police team has shown you court’s warrant of arrest. You should in fact cooperate, join in investigation and put your defence in court,” the tweet by Raipur Police said.

Later, Ghaziabad police took the news anchor’s custody from the Chhattisgarh police.

Ranjan is currently in the custody of Uttar Pradesh police and is likely to be questioned in the case, reports said.

An FIR has been registered against Ranjan under section 505 of IPC.

His detention comes days after the anchor on his show played a statement given by Rahul on an attack on his Wayanad office and wrongly linked it as the Congress leader’s response to the murder of Udaipur tailor.

The ‘fake news’ drew widespread condemnation and cases were filed against Ranjan in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

The news channel later issued a formal apology for using Rahul’s statement out of context.

“Yesterday, in our show DNA, Rahul Gandhi’s statement was taken in the wrong context by linking it to the Udaipur incident, it was a human error for which our team apologises,” the channel said in the statement.

The Congress on Saturday had accused BJP leaders, including former Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, of sharing “deliberately fabricated and distorted reportage” on Rahul’s comments in Kerala, and threatened to take legal action against them if the saffron party fails to apologise. Rahul also lashed out at the BJP and the RSS, alleging that “propaganda and lies” are their foundation.

Also read: News anchor, BJP’s Rathore booked over misleading Rahul Gandhi video

In a letter to BJP chief J P Nadda, Congress general secretary in-charge communication Jairam Ramesh said he was appalled to note that several BJP leaders have been deliberately and enthusiastically sharing “mischievous reportage that occurred on Zee News at 9 pm yesterday”. In his letter to Nadda, Ramesh said the original video was of Gandhi’s comment on the SFI violence on his Wayanad office but it was “deliberately and mischievously doctored” to appear as if it was a comment on the heinous murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur. It was immediately brought to the attention of all concerned that the reportage was false and deliberately misleading, he said.

“What is of even greater concern, is that several of your party colleagues, including Rajyavardhan Rathore, MP, Subrat Pathak MP, Kamlesh Saini, MLA and others, have enthusiastically and without verification published and shared the deliberately fabricated and distorted reportage,” Ramesh said in his letter. “Despite being cautioned by my party colleagues that the clip was maliciously false and misleading, Rathore persisted with amplifying the same, first deleting and then re-uploading the same,” he said.

“This leaves no doubt that Rathore’s actions were deliberate and part of your party’s strategy to defame the former Congress president, the party and to further polarise an already sensitive, communal situation,” Ramesh alleged.