Fake Rahul Gandhi video: Zee anchor Ranjan gets protection from arrest

Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan was on Friday (July 8) granted relief by the Supreme Court in connection with cases over airing a fake video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

Multiple FIRs have been lodged against Ranjan. The apex court directed the authorities not to take “any coercive steps” against him.

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

A vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari also issued notice to the Central government through the office of the Attorney General on Ranjan’s plea. Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Ranjan, told the apex court that multiple FIRs were lodged against him for the same allegation, according to an ANI report.

In the plea, the petitioner, Ranjan has sought various reliefs including quashing of FIRs filed against him or clubbing of multiple FIRs lodged against him in connection with a “misleading show”, the report added.

Earlier, a case was registered against Ranjan and others at Zee News on Sunday at Civil Lines Police station in Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups and outraging religious feelings of people, based on a complaint by Congress MLA Devendra Yadav, Raipur’s Senior Superintendent of Police Prashant Agrawal told PTI.

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

In his complaint, Yadav alleged that a video, in which Rahul described those attacking his Wayanad office as children and said he had no ill-will against them, was “mischievously” used by the TV channel on July 1 to suggest he was forgiving the killers of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal.

On July 2, a day after the doctored video was aired, Ranjan had apologised for mistakenly playing Rahul’s statement out of context by linking it with the Udaipur murder case.

“It was a human error for which our team is apologetic. We apologise for it,” he had tweeted in Hindi.

An FIR has also been lodged in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur district against five BJP leaders, including three MPs and one MLA, in connection with Gandhi’s doctored video.

There was a face-off between Chhattisgarh Police and their Uttar Pradesh counterparts to arrest Ranjan. A team of Raipur cops went to his house in Ghaziabad on Wednesday again, but he was not found there, a senior official said.

The Raipur district police from the Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh had gone to Ranjan’s home in Indirapuram area near Delhi on Tuesday early morning, but he was instead arrested by the Noida police who released him on bail later in the night.

(With inputs from agencies)