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(From left to right) The Wire editor Siddharth Varadarajan and senior journalist from the news portal, Karan Thapar. (Source: FB/ Wikimedia Commons)
On a day the Supreme Court granted interim protection from arrest to journalist and The Wire editor Siddharth Varadarajan in a case lodged by the Assam police over an article on Operation Sindoor, the Crime Branch of the police in Guwahati issued summons to him and another senior journalist from the news portal, Karan Thapar.
On August 12, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi granted the interim protection from arrest to Varadarajan in a case lodged by the Morigaon district police under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which deals with acts “endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.”
The same day, the Crime Branch of the Assam Police in Guwahati issued separate summons to Varadarajan and Thapar in connection with an FIR registered at the Crime Branch police station in Guwahati, directing them to appear at the police station on August 22.
While the summons do not contain details of the case against them, it mentions that this too has been registered under Section 152, along with 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.
The Indian Express contacted the Joint Commissioner of Police Guwahati, Ankur Jain, and DCP Crime Guwahati, but they did not share details of the complaint(s) based on which the FIR has been registered.
Varadajan said that they filed a petition before the Supreme Court on Monday night. “We have replied to the inspector who issued the summons both via speed post and WhatsApp, saying that his summons is bad in law because it does not contain a copy of the FIR, no details of what it is we are accused of doing, it doesn’t even have the date of the FIR. We also reminded him that we had already moved the Supreme Court over an earlier FIR,” he told The Indian Express.
In the written response to the inspector, he has requested a copy of the FIR “before proceeding any further in this matter”.
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“In the meanwhile, I am happy to assist the investigation in accordance with the procedure established by law, and you may also question me virtually or in Delhi (my home town and place of residence) if I am provided a copy of the FIR beforehand,” states the letter.
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