New Delhi: As Chhattisgarh Police arrived at news anchor Rohit Ranjan’s house to arrest him on July 5, Uttar Pradesh Police filed an FIR which named him mere minutes before detaining him, thus preventing his arrest by the former, Indian Express has reported.
Ranjan is facing FIRs in some states for playing a doctored clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, for which he apologised on air. He has moved Supreme Court seeking protection from coercive action for the alleged offence.
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Police has declared Ranjan an ‘absconder’ after having been unable to take him into custody from Ghaziabad on July 5, The Hindu has reported. On that day, scenes of high drama unfolded at Ranjan’s house with Chhattisgarh Police locked in a physical struggle with Uttar Pradesh Police over custody of the Ranjan. Ultimately, Ranjan was whisked away by the latter.
Police of the Congress-ruled state also visited the offices of Zee News, where Ranjan works, and have lodged a complaint against policemen of the Indirapuram police station with the Ghaziabad Senior Superintendent of Police for obstructing them in carrying out their duty.
The FIR against which Ghaziabad Police detained Ranjan was originally registered against two former producers of the channel and did not name Ranjan. It was filed on the basis of a complaint filed by a representative of the Zee Media Corporation against the two former producers. Police added Ranjan’s name under Section 505 (2) – public mischief – at 8.30 am on the day he was arrested. He was granted bail on that day itself.
Ranjan’s show had aired a statement made by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in the aftermath of violence purportedly by the Students’ Federation of India on his Wayanad office. The video allegedly made it seem like Gandhi made a comment on the murder of tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur.
The channel issued an apology the next day, with Ranjan saying, “Yesterday, in our show DNA, Rahul Gandhi’s statement was taken in the wrong context by linking it to the Udaipur incident, it was a human error for which our team apologises.”