Delhi court orders FIR against Abhijit Iyer-Mitra for objectionable posts against Newslaundry journalists

A Delhi court on Wednesday ordered the registration of a first information report (FIR) against Abhijit Iyer-Mitra for objectionable social media posts against Newslaundry's Manisha Pande and other journalists.

Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Bhanu Pratap Singh of the Saket Court passed the order.

The Court said that Iyer-Mitra made sexually coloured remarks against Pande and other journalists and the same are prima facie intended to insult Pande and she has been named in the tweet as well.

“Therefore, on perusal of the application and the material placed on record by the complainant, this Court is of the view that the content of the tweets posted by the accused on “X” platform discloses commission of cognizable offences under section 75(3) and 79 of BNS,” the order said.

It further ordered,

“This Court is of the view that police investigation is necessary as the offence has been committed in cyber space on platform "X". Therefore, police investigation is necessary to verify the user account on platform "X" from which the said tweets were published. Further police investigation is also necessary to trace and recover the computer source/electronic device from which the said tweets were published. This Court is also of the view that the Action Taken Report which was filed by PSI Ombir in the present case is not satisfactory as the above stated tweets were not considered in the report."

Manisha Pande and six other journalists had approached the Court, stating that Iyer-Mitra referred to them as prostitutes repeatedly in a series of posts and articles on the social media platform X (Twitter).

They argued that in several tweets, Iyer-Mitra wrote that “door gaon mein Newslaundry naam ki basti thi jahan r****** sasti thi". In another tweet, he made objectionable remarks about Pande.

Newslaundry journalists had also approached the Delhi High Court with a defamation suit against Iyer-Mitra following the latter's tweet describing the news organisation as a “basti/brothel" and its journalists as "prostitutes".

It was argued before the High Court that the remarks amount to a sustained campaign of vilification, causing them enormous mental trauma, harassment and embarrassment.

They sought a permanent injunction, a written apology from Iyer-Mitra and damages of ₹2 crore.

On May 21, 2025, the Court recorded Iyer-Mitra’s undertaking to delete certain posts within five hours.

The suit is still pending before the High Court.

Advocates Bani Dikshit and Udhav Khanna appeared for Newslaundry journalists.

[Read Order]