An FIR has been filed in Noida against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, journalists Rajdeep Sardesai, Zafar Agha, Mrinal Pande, Paresh Nath, Anant Nath and Vinod K. Jose for allegedly spreading misinformation in connection with 26 January’s farmers’ tractor rally.
The FIR alleges that people named in the FIR were responsible for instigating people using their Twitter handles stating that the Delhi Police had killed a farmer on 26 January.
India Today, where Sardesai is working as the group’s consulting editor, has taken the veteran journalist off the air for two weeks and deducted one month’s salary as punishment for spreading misinformation using his Twitter account.
The police complaint was filed by one Arpit Mishra, a resident of Noida. The Noida Police, according to New Indian Express, said that the complaint was being and action ‘as per the law was being taken.’
The complainant said that all six named in the FIR acted in a prejudiced manner to ‘spread the wrong information about the death of a farmer in police firing.’
#JUSTIN: पत्रकार राजदीप सरदेसाई, मृणाल पांडे, ज़फ़र आगा, सांसद शशि थरूर, परेशनाथ सहित आठ लोगों के ख़िलाफ़ एफआईआर दर्ज किया गया। एफआईआर में सोशल मीडिया पोस्ट के ज़रिए दंगा भड़काने, हिंसा फैलाने की धारायें लगाई गयी।@ranvijaylive @umashankarsingh @rohini_sgh @Gauraw2297 pic.twitter.com/ukn0fiDGGf
— Vishwajeet Maurya (@bishwamaurya) January 28, 2021
Sardesai in his tweet on 26 January written about the farmer’s death during the violence, “One person, 45-year-old Navneet killed allegedly in police firing at ITO. Farmers tell me: the ‘sacrifice’ will not go in vain.” He had ended his tweet with hashtag #groundzero.”
The Delhi Police, however, had released a video stating that the farmer died after his tractor overturned in the national capital.
Tens of thousands of farmers have been camping at different borders of Delhi demanding the withdrawal of the controversial Farm Laws that they saw have been passed to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s businessman friends.