The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday stayed criminal proceedings by Karnataka police against journalist Arnab Goswami in an alleged fake news case. The court called the registration of FIR in the case a “reckless registration of a crime” while passing the interim order to stay the probe against the Republic TV editor-in-chief.
A bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna issued the order in response to a petition by Arnab Goswami pleading to quash the proceedings. The case relates to a news report by the Republic Kannada Channel alleging that an ambulance was stuck in traffic after vehicles were stopped for convoy of Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
The report was broadcast on 27 March this year, which said that traffic on Bengaluru’s MG Road was stopped to clear the way for the CM’s convoy. As a result, an ambulance was stuck in the traffic, the Kannada report stated.
Following the news report, Congress leader Ravindra MV filed a complaint against Arnab Goswami and Republic Kannada editor Niranjan. In the complaint, Ravindra had said that CM Siddaramaiah was actually in Mysuru at the time of the alleged incident.
Accordingly, police registered an FIR under Section 505 (2) (for creating enmity) of the Indian Penal Code, alleging that the channel had spread fake news ahead of the Lok Sabha elections to mislead the public.
Arnab Goswami refuted the allegations, stating that the report was on air for only a few minutes and then an apology was issued due to the apology. Senior Advocate Aruna Shyam, representing Goswami, informed the Court that the news report was promptly deleted once the channel realised that it was inaccurate.
The court stated that the entire report was about public suffering due to movement of CM’s convoy, and then the report was immediately deleted after it was realised that CM was not there. The court noted that everything happened within 24 hours, and the complaint was filed after that.
Noting that section 505(2) does not apply to the alleged offence, the court stated, “it is ununderstandable as to how 505(2) could spring as to its remotest sense in the case at hand. If such reckless registrations were permitted to be continued, it would be an abuse of process of law.”
The court questioned what was the offence of Arnab Goswami for the Kannada report. Justice Nagaprasanna said, “What has Arnab Goswami done? There is a plethora of things brought out by him. It might have proved good for some and bad for others, but where is the case of inciting? We will hear both parties but now we will stay the investigation,”
The court stayed all further investigations until the next hearing, scheduled for January 16, 2025.
