On 6th February, Rachit Kaushik (Tantra Baba), founder of the Sab Loktantra news portal, was picked up by four Punjab Police officers from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. Kaushik was in Muzaffarnagar to attend a family wedding. The incident occurred around 7 PM when Kaushik was accompanying his niece from the parlour to the wedding location.
OpIndia contacted Kaushik’s family. His mother spoke to our journalist and narrated the whole incident. She said Kaushik was coming back to the event location after picking up his niece, who was getting married on that day. A Scorpio suddenly came in front of their vehicle, and a Sikh man in civilian uniform emerged.
Kaushik thought his car might have touched the Scorpio, so he pulled down the window glass to talk to the Sikh man. Without warning, the Sikh man opened the door from outside and pulled Kaushik out. Before anyone accompanying Kaushik could understand what happened, he was picked up and pulled towards the police vehicle. The only thing they could understand was that there was a warrant against him.
Within minutes, Kaushik’s relatives and people who had witnessed the incident gathered at the spot. Kaushik’s mother said they called the police, and it took some time for them to figure out that Punjab Police had informed one of the police stations in the area. Police also forwarded the FIR based on which Punjab Police arrested Kaushik. Interestingly, Kaushik’s family did not receive any warrant.
FIR does not mention Kaushik or Sab Loktantra
OpIndia accessed a copy of the FIR based on which Punjab Police arrested Kaushik. Interestingly, nowhere in the FIR was Kaushik of Sab Loktantra’s name mentioned. The FIR was registered based on a complaint of one Alisha Sultan from the Salem Tabri Police Station area in Ludhiana. The complainant said that she is a pastor, and on 17th January, she noticed posts by a Twitter (now X) account called ‘noconversion’ against the Christian religion. The complainant accused the account owner of insulting Christian women and nuns and asserted such posts could incite communal tensions, which might disturb peace in the country.
The FIR mentioned that copies of those posts were attached to the complaint, but the links to those posts were not included in the FIR. The FIR, registered under Sections 295A, 153A, 153, 504 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 67 of the IT Act, nowhere mentioned which posts by the said account hurt the religious sentiments of the complainant.
Speaking to OpIndia, Kaushik’s mother asserted there was a possibility that Punjab Police picked her son as he said against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in his videos. A clip of such videos by Kaushik was shared by the ‘noconversion’ account on X on 16th January. The clip shared talked about Arvind Kejriwal’s son and his alleged income from renting treadmills to CM’s house. Apart from that clip, there was no other video featuring Kaushik on that account. Kaushik’s mother said, “Punjab Police officer was heard saying ‘We have been tracing you for a long time. Finally, we caught you”. Interestingly, Kaushik did not mention Christians or speak against conversion in that clip.
OpIndia could not find any other video of Kaushik posted by ‘noconversion’ mentioning conversions being done by missionaries. Furthermore, we could not confirm whether this post and video led to Kaushik’s arrest.
It is unclear why Kaushik was picked in the matter related to the posts made by the ‘noconversion’ account on social media.
Interestingly, the FIR that the family of Rachit Kaushik was provided has no mention of Rachit at all. It only mentions the Twitter handle ‘no conversion’. The FIR also does not mention the video against Arvind Kejriwal and his son. It, therefore, seems likely that Rachit may have been arrested because of the video that was shared by ‘noconversion’ Twitter handle.
OpIndia tried reaching out to the concerned police station in Punjab but could not connect. When and if Punjab Police releases a statement, we will update this report accordingly.
