Also in Assam Police FIR against The Wire journalists – late Satya Pal Malik, Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi

The FIR was registered in May at the Guwahati Crime Branch police station based on a complaint by a Guwahati resident named Biju Verma. It was registered under BNS section 152, which deals with acts “endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India”, and other sections of the BNS pertaining to promoting enmity between different groups; publishing false or misleading information jeopardising the sovereignty, unity and integrity or security of India; statements conducing to public mischief; and criminal conspiracy.

On August 12, Varadarajan and Thapar were issued summons by the Assam Police to appear in Guwahati. This came on the same day that the Supreme Court granted interim protection from arrest to Varadarajan in another FIR filed under section 152 in Assam’s Morigaon district.

The complaint on the basis of which the Guwahati Crime Branch FIR was registered alleged that articles and commentary published on The Wire following the Pahalgam terrorist attack in April “prima facie undermines India’s sovereignty and security, promote enmity and public disorder, and spread misinformation” and names as accused Varadarajan, Thapar, Malik, Sethi and journalist Ashutosh Bhardwaj, editor of The Wire, Hindi. It alleged that Thapar’s interview show functioned as a “platform” to “assign blame to the Indian State for acts of terrorism perpetrated by cross-border elements”.

“In a deeply disturbing trend, journalist Karan Thapar has hosted a series of interviews on The Wire platform with individuals such as Najam Sethi, Ashutosh Bhardwaj, and former JK Governor Satya Pal Malik, wherein grave and offensive remarks have been made against the Government of India, particularly in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terror attack,” the complaint states.

“The featuring of Najam Sethi adds an international dimension that risks projecting India’s constitutional democracy as oppressive, while potentially lending intellectual validation to narratives peddled by hostile regimes,” it states.

The complaint also referred to multiple articles published on the portal on the state of play in Kashmir, security issues, and Operation Sindoor, alleging that they “systematically erode the credibility of India’s armed forces, question the legitimacy of its sovereign responses, amplify hostile narratives without verification, and insidiously equate counterterror operations with communal or electoral motives”.

On Thursday, the Assam Police had registered another FIR under section 152 against another Delhi-based journalist, Abhisar Sharma, based on a complaint against a video on his YouTube channel on recent remarks by Gauhati High Court judge Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi, questioning why 3,000 bighas of land in the tribal Dima Hasao district were allotted to a private company to set up a cement factory.