New Delhi: In a relief to TV news anchor Rohit Ranjan, the Supreme Court on Friday restrained various state authorities from taking coercive steps against him to take him in custody in connection with multiple FIRs for playing a doctored clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the telecast of a programme on July 1.
The interim protection to the news anchor came from a vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and J K Maheshwari which also issued notices to the Centre and states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh seeking their responses on Ranjan's plea for quashing of complaints or FIRs concerning the telecast.
"Issue notice. Service on the Union of India be effected through the office of the Central Agency," the bench said.
"In the meanwhile, there will be an interim order restraining the respondent-authorities from taking coercive steps against the petitioner to take him into custody in connection with the anchoring/telecast of DNA on July 1, 2022," the top court said in its order.
The apex court was hearing the plea of the anchor who is facing FIRs in some states. Ranjan later apologised and the news programme was withdrawn.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Ranjan, told the bench that as of now, three FIRs have been registered at Jaipur, Raipur, and Noida.
He said an unintentional error was committed in the programme and the petitioner had apologised also.
Luthra said two concerned persons of the company had accepted their fault and have resigned.
Today, my difficulty is, the first FIR is in Jaipur, the second FIR is at Raipur in Chhattisgarh, Luthra said, adding an FIR is also there in Noida.
In his petition filed through law firm Karanjawala and Co, the news anchor has sought relief including the quashing of FIRs or complaints or their clubbing and transfer to one place.
Ranjan has also sought a direction that no coercive action be taken against him for the withdrawn programme for which he and the channel have apologised.
The petition has sought security for the journalist, his family members, and his colleagues associated with the programme in question.
On Tuesday, a police team from Chhattisgarh had reached Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad town to arrest the anchor from his home but he was instead arrested by the Noida police who released him on bail later.