UP Police Orders ‘The Wire’ Editor to Appear in Court on 14 April

The Uttar Pradesh police has served Siddharth Varadarajan a notice to appear in court on 14 April,

The Uttar Pradesh police has served Siddharth Varadarajan, senior journalist and editor of The Wire, a notice to appear in court on 14 April, in connection with an FIR registered by the police against him for a ‘disreputable’ comment made against UP CM Yogi Adityanath.

The Uttar Pradesh police had on 1 April registered an FIR against the veteran journalist over comments on Twitter claiming that the day Tablighi Jamaat held its event in Delhi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had insisted that a Ram Navami fair would take place as usual.

The FIR also mentioned his remark, questioning Adityanath's participation at a religious ceremony at the Ramjanmabhoomi site in Ayodhya during the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.

In a series of tweets, Varadarajan’s wife said that a number of policemen had visited the couple’s home in New Delhi on Friday, 10 April, and served a notice. In a response to the FIR, Varadarajan had called it ‘poliically motivated’

Today, April 10, at 2 pm a plainclothes man came to our home and said he had come from the Ayodhya ‘prashasan’ to serve notice on @svaradarajan. He would not give his name. I told him to leave it in the mailbox. He refused. 2/5

— N S (@nandinisundar) April 10, 2020

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According to a report in Scroll.in, Mritunjay Kumar, the media advisor to Adityanath, had said on 1 April that action had been initiated against Varadarajan as he had neither apologised or deleted his tweet.

On the day the Tablighi Jamaat event was held, Adityanath insisted a large Ram Navami fair planned for Ayodhya from March 25 to April 2 would proceed as usual and that ‘Lord Ram would protect devotees from the coronavirus”. https://t.co/rO09bSkHSe via @TheWire_in

— Siddharth (@svaradarajan) March 30, 2020

As a clarification, the journalist later tweeted:

“I should clarify that it was Acharya Paramhans, Hindutva stalwart and head of the official Ayodhya temple trust, who said Ram would protect devotees from coronavirus, and not Adityanath, though he allowed a public event on 25/3 in defiance of the lockdown and took part himself.”

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram had earlier slammed the UP government, saying it is a “deplorable” act intended to suppress media freedom.

In a series of tweets, he said, “UP government has filed an FIR against The Wire for carrying a story containing facts and only facts. No ‘fact' is wrong or even alleged to be wrong. Where is the crime?”

The Editors Guild of India reportedly called the FIR “an overreaction and an act of intimidation”.

(With inputs from Scroll.in)