New Delhi: As Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath inaugurated a building in Ghaziabad on Wednesday, February 28, police booked a journalist for defamation after he allegedly posted wrong information on social media related to the construction of the premises, Times of India reported.
According to the report, Adityanath inaugurated a building meant to house police personnel on the premises of Khora police station around noon. Meanwhile, Lokesh Rai, a Ghaziabad-based journalist working with a news channel, posted a a video of the inauguration along with photos that showed an under-construction building on social media platform X (previously called Twitter).
Implying that the images were of the same building that was being inaugurated, Rai alleged that it was not ready yet. Subsequently, around 15 minutes later, a video of another building was posted from the official account of the Ghaziabad Police on X which they claimed that the chief minister was inaugurating. Rai deleted his post by 1pm.
Speaking to Times of India, the journalist said that it was a “small mistake” and his post was “not intentionally” wrong. “Before registering an FIR, senior police officers called me and asked to delete the post because the information was wrong. A few minutes ago, I learnt that an FIR was registered in the matter. I am looking into it,” Rai informed the daily.
Police’s version
According to DCP (trans-Hindon) Nimish Patel, Rai posted photos of the administrative building of the police station, which is currently under-construction, instead of the residential building, the report mentioned.
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“The accused had not checked the information and posted on X by tagging UP Police, DGP and other officials,” the DCP was quoted by Times of India. The police alleged that the post was an attempt to defame the Adityanath government and Ghaziabad police, as per the report.
An FIR was registered against the journalist by Khora police station sub-inspector Lokesh Kumar under sections 500 (punishment for defamation), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) of the IPC and relevant provisions of the IT Act.
In 2023, India has slipped to the 161st rank in terms of press freedom out of 180 countries ranked, according to the World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).