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Rohit Ranjan of Zee News: Different States Police Chasing The Same Person


Even though interstate arrests in India are not entirely rare, not every day does the Uttar Pradesh police tussle with another state's police force over dibs on the arrest. But on Tuesday, July 5, when Chhattisgarh Police showed up at TV news anchor Rohit Ranjan's Indirapuram home with an arrest warrant reportedly in hand, the Ghaziabad and Noida Police were having none of it.  An hour after the Chhattisgarh police arrived at his doorstep (5:30 am, as per PTI), Ranjan tagged Uttar Pradesh Police and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in a tweet questioning the legality of the arrest, and the local Ghaziabad police showed up. A couple of hours later (8 am), the Noida police came, and seemingly after some argument between the police teams, Rohit Ranjan has whisked away. On Thursday, a TV news anchor facing several FIRs in some states for playing a doctored clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi again sought an urgent hearing from the Supreme Court on his plea seeking protection from coercive action for the alleged offence. A vacation bench headed by Justice Indira Banerjee, which on Wednesday had ordered listing of the plea for hearing on Thursday, said it was ‘awaiting an assignment from the CJI.’  “It has not been assigned to us. It is awaiting assignment by the Chief Justice. It may not be assigned to us,” said the bench, which also comprised justice J K Maheshwari.  Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Rohit Ranjan Zee News Anchor, said the petition was directed to be listed for hearing today. Still, it has not figured in the list of business and urged that it be assigned to some bench on Friday.  “Let us see. The case papers are with the CJI…List the matter tomorrow subject to clearance by the CJI,” the bench said. On Wednesday, the top court agreed to hear the plea of the news anchor facing several FIRs in some states for playing a doctored clip of Gandhi.  Ranjan later apologised, and the channel withdrew the news programme.  “This man was arrested yesterday by UP police at Noida and released on bail as the offence invoked was bailable,” Luthra had said, adding that the anchor made an error in one of the shows and apologised for that and took the news back. “Now, Chhattisgarh Police wants to arrest him. Please list this urgently since otherwise, he will be in repeated custody,” the senior lawyer said.  On Tuesday, a police team from Chhattisgarh reached Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad town to arrest the anchor from his home, but he was controlled by the Noida police, who discharged him on bail later that night.  “Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan was picked up from his home for questioning on Tuesday morning by a team from Noida Sector-20 police station in connection with an FIR lodged under IPC 505 (public mischief) on a complaint by his channel over a doctored video played during his show on July 1,” a Noida police officer said.  SSP Prashant Agrawal in Raipur told PTI that a case was registered against Ranjan and others at Zee News on Sunday for allegedly encouraging enmity between different groups and outraging spiritual feelings of people based on a protest by Congress MLA Devendra Yadav.  He said: “A video in which Gandhi described those slamming 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,” in his complaint.  The FIR was lodged in Raipur under IPC sections, including 153A,295A, 467, and 504. 

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