Loni Case: Bombay HC Grants Rana Ayyub Protection From Arrest

This comes in connection with an FIR filed against her for sharing the viral video of a Muslim man being assaulted.

File image of journalist Rana Ayyub.

(Photo courtesy: Facebook/ Rana Ayyub)

The Bombay High Court Monday, 21 June, granted protection from arrest for four weeks to journalist Rana Ayyub, in connection with an FIR filed against her for sharing the viral video of an elderly Muslim man being assaulted in Ghaziabad’s Loni.

A single-judge Bench of Justice Prakash D Naik heard the journalist's application, which sought protection from arrest, and enabled Ayyub to approach a suitable Uttar Pradesh court in the case registered by Loni Border Police in Ghaziabad earlier this month.

The police had said, “The following entities – The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Mohammad Zubair, Dr Shama Mohammed, Saba Naqvi, Maskoor Usmani, Salman Nizami – without checking the fact, started giving communal colour to the incident on Twitter and suddenly they started spreading messages to disrupt the peace and bring differences between the religious communities.”

Ayyub and others has been booked under sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage reli­gious feelings ), 505 (statements conducting public mischief) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Incident

The victim, 72-year-old Abdul Samad Saifi, was beaten up by a group of men, who allegedly made him chant “Jai Shri Ram,” and forcibly chopped off his beard.

However, the police stated that the allegation of him being made to chant religious slogans is untrue.

Journalists Naqvi and Ayyub, in a tweet later, said that their comments were based on news reports and that they will wait for the investigation to be completed.