In a relief to TV news anchor Rohit Ranjan, the Supreme Court on Friday restrained various state authorities from taking coercive steps against him to take him in custody in connection with multiple FIRs for playing a doctored clip of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi during the telecast of a programme on July 1.
The apex court has also issued notices to the Centre and states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh seeking their responses on Ranjan’s plea for quashing of complaints or FIRs concerning the telecast.
On Tuesday, a police team from Chhattisgarh had reached Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad town to arrest the anchor from his home but he was instead arrested by the Noida police who released him on bail later.
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The complaint against Rohit Ranjan states that a video, in which Gandhi described those attacking his Wayanad office as children and said he had no ill-will against them, was "mischievously" used by the TV channel on July 1 to suggest he was forgiving the killers of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal.
On July 2, a day after the video was aired, Ranjan apologised for mistakenly playing Gandhi's statement out of context