The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 9 February, stayed the arrest of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Vinod K Jose, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Anant Nath, and Paresh Nath over the FIRs registered against them for their tweets about the farmers’ tractor rally on 26 January, Republic Day, LiveLaw reported.
They had earlier approached the Supreme Court over the FIRs against them pertaining to the reportage on the death of a farmer in Delhi during the tractor rally.
The FIRs against Tharoor and the journalists have been filed in multiple states, including Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. They were booked for sedition by the Noida Police on Thursday, 28 January, with the FIR stating that they shared misinformed news and 'instigated violence' on 26 January.
A similar FIR was registered in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal against the Congress MP and the senior journalists for posting “defamatory, false and instigating” tweets, which falsely accused the Delhi Police of murdering of a person. Three other FIRs have also been filed in MP.
They were later booked by both the Delhi and Gurugram Police as well. The case had been registered under Sections 124 A, 153 A, 153 B, 505 (2), and 120 B with charges of sedition, criminal conspiracy, and promoting enmity under the Indian Penal Code.
Violence had erupted in various parts of Delhi on 26 January during the farmers' Republic Day tractor rally.
(With inputs from LiveLaw.)
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