Noida: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, senior journos booked for sedition

NOIDA: Congress MP Shashi Tharoor and senior journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Mrinal Pande, Zafar Agha, Paresh Nath, Anant Nath, Vinod K Jose and ‘others’ were booked in an FIR filed under charges of sedition, promoting enmity and other sections of IPC at Sector 20 police station on Thursday.
The basis for the case was a complaint by a Noida resident — who police identified as Arpit Mishra, a “social worker” — against them for “broadcasting and tweeting misleading news” on the death of a protester during the R-Day clashes in Delhi during the farmers’ tractor rally.
The FIR has been filed under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national-integration), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or reli"gious beliefs), 298 (uttering words, etc, with deliberate intent to hurt religious feelings), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 505(2) (st"atements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes), 124A (sedition), 34 (common intention), 120b (criminal conspiracy) and Section 66 of the IT Act. It names Tharoor, the six journalists and ‘others’.
Most of the charges mentioned in the FIR are non-bailab"le. An FIR was lodged against Tharoor and the six journalists in Bhopal as well.
While Sardesai works for India Today TV Network, the FIR identifies Pande, a veteran journalist, as associated with National Herald, which is linked to Congress.
Agha, also a senior journalist, is editor of the Congress-linked Urdu newspaper Qaumi Awaaz. Paresh Nath, Anant Nath and Jose are all associated with Caravan magazine.
Mishra claimed in the complaint he was pained at the violence “deliberately orchestrated” on Republic Day. “They have deliberately broadcast malicious, insulting, misleading news and tweeted via their Twitter handles that police have killed a protester tractor driver,” reads the complaint. The protester, 24-year-old Navreet Singh, died of injuries sustained when his tractor overturned near ITO in Delhi on R-Day, according to the autopsy report.