[Gareeb Nawaz Masjid demolition] Allahabad High Court seeks govt reply on plea by The Wire to quash FIR against journos

The Allahabad High Court has sought response from the Uttar Pradesh government on plea moved by news portal, The Wire and two of its journalists seeking quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) registered against them for a video report about Gareeb Nawaz Mosque demolition in Uttar Pradesh. (Foundation for Independent Journalism v. State of Uttar Pradesh).A Division Bench comprising Justices Ramesh Sinha and Saroj Yadav asked the government to file a counter affidavit in the matter and inform the court as to whether any 'communal' harmony was disturbed after the video report..The counsel for petitioners, Senior Advocate IB Singh submitted that only the petitioner has been targeted by the State authorities though other media organisations had also reported about the incident."Various news publications such as The Guardian, BBC Hindi, Quint, Lallantop, Parmarth Awaz News, ANI etc. reported the incident between May 18 - May 30, 2021. They refer to police ransacking homes, desecration of religious books, and carried images of mosque demolition including prayer mats and religious texts lying in the debris, floating in a water body etc," submitted the petitioners before the court .The government advocate, however, informed the Court that the Police will not arrest the petitioners but only want to record their statements.It was also placed on record that they had visited The Wire's office at New Delhi, but they refused to give any statement..The petitioner's counsel responded by stating that the founding editor of the organisation, Siddharth Varadarajan is currently not in India and once he is back, the petitioners will cooperate with the probe. .The writ petition was moved for quashing of FIR for offences under Sections 153 (provocation to cause riot), 153-A (promoting enmity between religious groups), and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.The plea was moved by the Foundation for Independent Journalism (The Company that runs The Wire) and journalists Seraj Ali and Mukul Singh Chauhan..In the plea, it was submitted that allegations made against the police in the said video news report do not amount to promotion of feeling of enmity/hatred/ill-will between different religious, racial, linguistic, regional groups or communities. The ‘police’ do not constitute a religious/ racial/ linguistic/ regional group or community and do not fall within any of these categories mentioned in Section 153-A IPC..Senior Advocate, IB Singh assisted by Advocate Surangama Sharma appeared for the petitioners while Additional Government Advocate represented the state. .The matter will be heard again on October 21. .[Read order]