Chhattisgarh Police arrests Zee TV anchor for allegedly promoting enmity between groups

|HT|

High drama unfolded in Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh on Monday after the Chhattisgarh Police arrived at the residence of Zee TV anchor Rohit Ranjan to arrest him in connection with an FIR filed against him for allegedly promoting enmity between groups. The FIR was filed for allegedly presenting Rahul Gandhi's remarks on vandalism at his office in Wayanad as his statement on the killers of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal.

According to Chhattisgarh Police, a case was registered with Civil Lines police station in Raipur on the complaint of one Devendra Yadav. “Rohit Ranjan was booked under various sections including Section 153 ( promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion , race , place etc ) , Section 295 ( injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class ) , Section 504, 505 (20) ( statements conducting to public mischief ) , Section 120 B ( criminal conspiracy) , Section 467 ( forgery of valuable security , will etc), Section 469 and Section 471”, Prashant Agarwal, superintendent of police (SP), Raipur.

The Raipur Police formed a team to investigate the matter and rushed to Ghaziabad where the anchor stays. The Raipur SP claimed the Chhattisgarh Police team reached Ghaziabad with a court warrant and detained the anchor.

"The team was sent Monday . He was under our custody and the process of arresting him was being completed at his house. But the local police came and obstructed, and ultimately took away the accused from Raipur police custody," Agarwal said.

“The news anchor Rohit Ranjan has been picked up for questioning by the Noida Police in a case registered at Sector 20 police station in Noida. A case under Section 505 of Indian Penal Code was lodged today but the anchor was not named. The anchor has not been arrested,” Kumar Ranvijay Singh, additional DCP, Noida, said.

In a clip, Rahul Gandhi had called the Students Federation of India (SFI) activists who vandalised his office as ‘children’ and said he did not have any anger towards them. The channel aired the comment as the Congress leader's remarks towards Riyaz Attari and Ghous Mohammed, the two killers of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal. The channel apologised for the error but the Congress has been staging protests.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)