SC to Hear Plea Against Journalist’s Arrest

NEW DELHI:
A plea was moved by Jageesha Arora, wife of journalist Prashant Kanojia in the Supreme Court on Monday challenging her husband’s arrest by the Uttar Pradesh Police for publishing an “objectionable” tweet against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

Prashant Kanojia was allegedly picked up by the Uttar Pradesh Police from Delhi on Saturday. Though, his formal arrest was shown from Lucknow. Reportedly, the Uttar Pradesh Police took the action suo motu in this case.

Kanojia’s wife has now moved the apex court challenging the action of the state police and sought issuance of Habeas Corpus. The petition claims some people in civil dress picked up Kanojia and allegedly did not produce any warrant of arrest. The petitioner alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Police did not seek transit remand from any Delhi court, but went ahead with the formal arrest in Lucknow.

Advocate Nithya Ramakrishnan mentioned the matter before a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi on behalf of Jageesha Arora and sought urgent hearing terming the arrest “illegal and unconstitutional”. The top court has agreed to hear the plea on Tuesday.

The Uttar Pradesh Police had registered an FIR on June 7 at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow under various provisions of the IPC and the Information Technology Act. Kanojia made satirical comments on Adityanath purely based on the alleged claim of a woman that she was in regular touch with the Chief Minister via video conferencing.