Supreme Court stops Assam Police from arresting Karan Thapar, Siddharth Varadarajan

The Supreme Court on Friday stopped the Assam Police from taking any coercive action against The Wire Editor Siddharth Varadarajan and journalist Karan Thapar.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi also asked both of them to cooperate with the investigation in the cases registered against them.

"Post the matter on 15 September. Meanwhile, no coercive action shall be taken against petitioner No.2 and members of petitioner-Foundation, including the Consulting Editor pursuant to FIR registered u/s 152 BNS subject to their ...... cooperating with investigation," the Court ordered.

The Court passed the order on the plea filed by Varadrajan and Thapar challenging the summons issued to them by the Crime Branch in relation to a first information report (FIR) registered under Section 152 of Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS).

Section 152 of BNS addresses acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.

Notably, the Assam Police issued these summons just days after the Supreme Court granted The Wire relief in another Section 152 FIR registered by Assam Police.

Senior Advodate Nitya Ramakrishnan appeared for the petitioners and stated that the FIR in question dates back to May and was invoked soon after the Supreme Court granted protection in the other case.

She argued that the State appears to inclined on initiating successive FIRs, creating a genuine apprehension of arrest.

After considering the case, the Court granted the journalists protection from arrest.

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