SC to hear plea by TV news anchor against multiple FIRs on doctored video of Rahul Gandhi

Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan was picked up from his home for questioning on Tuesday morning by a team from Noida Sector-20 police station

The Supreme Court agreed to hear on Thursday the plea of a TV news anchor, facing several FIRs in some states for playing a doctored clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, seeking protection from coercive action for the alleged offence.

Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan had approached the Supreme Court, challenging multiple FIRs lodged against him for running the alleged doctored video.

The top court decided to hear the plea on Thursday as senior advocate Siddharth Luthra mentioned the plea by Ranjan for urgent hearing on Wednesday.

Luthra submitted before a bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari that his client made an error during a show and later apologised for it. However, multiple FIRs have been registered against him in connection with the show.

Read | Uttar Pradesh cops thwart Chhattisgarh police’s arrest of TV news anchor but arrest him themselves

On Tuesday, Noida police arrested him and released him on bail. However, Chhattisgarh police tried to arrest him from his Ghaziabad residence.

During the brief hearing, the advocate-on-record (AoR) clarified that the petition was yet to be filed.

This, however, angered the bench which said, "We should have been told that the matter has not been filed. This is no ground. This court is going to take a very strong view."

In a show, Ranjan allegedly presented the 'doctored' video clip of Rahul Gandhi, in which he was heard branding the Udaipur attackers as "children" purportedly justifying the heinous killing of tailor Kanhaiya Lal.

However, the original video had Rahul Gandhi's comments on the SFI attack at his Wayanad office, which was "deliberately and mischievously" doctored to make it appear as if it was a remark on the murder in Udaipur.