On Friday, September 15, the Karnataka High Court asked the state police not to take coercive steps against Aaj Tak anchor Sudhir Choudhury. The judge also opined that there was no need to interrogate the anchor in custody since all the information required was already in the public domain.
The order was passed while the court was hearing the plea filed by Sudhir Chaudhary and Hindi news channel Aaj Tak seeking to quash the First Information Report (FIR) recently filed against them by the Congress government in Karnataka for doing a show on the state government’s Swawalambi Sarathi scheme.
In his appeal against the criminal prosecution filed against him, Chaudhury argued that in a democracy, the press and media have the freedom to question the administration of the day.
According to the plea, any questions raised by the media against the administration now result in the filing of criminal charges, and the State machinery “goes into overdrive” to silence the press’s voice.
Furthermore, the plea indicated that mens rea was not present in the case because there was no desire to foster animosity amongst groups of individuals.
As a result, the criminal case that was submitted cannot stand.
While hearing the plea, the single judge bench of Justice Hemant Chandangoudar said that he would decide on the plea next Wednesday, and asked the police not to take any coercive steps against Chaudhary in the meantime.
The judge also stated that there was no need to question the anchor in custody because all of the required information was already available in the public domain.
The judge also orally said that there appeared to be a prima facie case against Chaudhary but whether or not the news report had fueled any hatred against a religion is something that may have to be examined through an investigation.
Notably, the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation lodged an FIR against news anchor Sudhir Chaudhary for merely doing a show on the ‘Swavalambi Sarathi ‘scheme launched by the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation.
Chaudhary was booked at the Seshadripuram police station in Bengaluru on multiple counts, many of which are non-bailable offences, according to the sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In the show Aaj Tak’s Sudhir Chaudhury did on the 12th of September, he spoke about this scheme and how it was being implemented for minorities and not Hindus. As soon as the video was out, Congress’ Priyank Kharge, who has recently also made anti-Hindu statements, tweeted that Sudhir was spreading misinformation and he would take legal action against the anchor.
The same day, at 11:36 PM, Mohammad Zubair, the co-founder of AltNews and dog-whistler-in-chief, was the first to tweet that an FIR had been filed against Sudhir Chaudhury.
OpIndia did a detailed report on the entire controversy surrounding the Karnataka government’s Swavalambi Sarathi Scheme. In our report, we covered in detail what exactly transpired. Delved into the misleading claims made by Mohammad Zubair which led to Congress leader Priyank Kharge filing an FIR against Sudhir Chaudhury. OpIndia’s report provided detailed information, facts and data that went on to prove that there was, indeed, no misinformation spread by Sudhir Chaudhury or other media houses, nevertheless, the Karnataka government continued to file an FIR against the anchor instead of conceding to facts.
