New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted Zee News editor, Rajnish Ahuja, protection from arrest in FIRs registered against him for airing a doctored video of Rahul Gandhi. The bench comprising Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice, Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala was hearing Ahuja's case seeking protection.
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The court proceeded to issue notice to the states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and others. The court tagged the matter with Zee news anchor Rohit Ranjan plea who had similar prayers as he was also charged for airing doctored video. The court today noted that the channel had apologised for the video. It directs that there should be no coercive action against the editor in the present FIRs registered or the future ones.
The issue is with respect to a news aired by the channel that Rahul Gandhi had said that the murderers of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal should be forgiven. However, the news was based on a doctored video of Gandhi in which he had actually said that he was forgiving the youngsters who vandalized his office in Wayanad.