Syed Khalique Ahmed | India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, APRIL 12—While the Editors Guild of India condemned the Uttar Pradesh government without naming it for registration of an FIR against the Founding Editor of the news portal, The Wire, the UP police served a notice to Siddharth Varadarajan to appear in a court in Ayodhya in connection with the FIR on April 14.
The notice was served to Varadarajan in person by the UP police on April 10 at his residence, summoning him to appear in the court despite lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic all over the country.
This was tweeted by his wife Nandini Sundar through a series of tweets.
“When it comes to the gross abuse of police power by the Adityanath administration in UP and its intolerance of press freedom, it is clear that COVID-19, the lockdown and social distancing make no difference whatsoever”, she said in one her tweets.
She said that at 2 pm on April 10, a plainclothesman came to their home and said that he had come from the Ayodhya ‘prashashan’ to serve a notice to Varadarajan.
When Nandini asked for his name, he did not divulge his identity. “He would not give his name. I told him to leave it in the mailbox. He refused”, she said.
“At 3:20 pm, he & 7-8 uniformed men (at least 2 not in masks) came in a black SUV, no number plates. Only 2 identified themselves. On insisting, they gave plainclothesman’s name as Chanderbhan Yadav, not designation. Cops said they’d driven from Ayodhya for this essential service”, Nandini further tweeted.
Initially, they did not allow Varadarajan’s wife to receive and sign the summons.
“Our rule is not to give it to women and minors”, they told Nandini.
Hpowever, when she asked to show the rule, they called up someone on phone. “When asked to be shown the rule, they sought instructions on phone and let me sign. Then, they phoned their boss to say “notice has been received”, says Nandini’s tweet.
The notice, according to Nandini, asks Varadarajan “to appear in Ayohdya at 10 am on April 10 (when the lockdown will still be in force) in connection with FIR registered by the police for factual @thewire.in story which said Adityanath & others had attended a religious event in Ayodhya after the lockdown”.
The Ayodhya police had registered two FIRs on April 1 against Varadarajan on charges of allegedly wrongly attributing a quote to Chief Minister Adityanath on the controversy surrounding Ram Navami festival.
While the first FIR was registered at the Faizabad City Kotwali police station, the other one was registered at the Ayodhya Police Station in Faizabad City.
Criticising the registration of FIR against Varadarajan, the Editors Guild of India said, “A police action in the fork of an FIR under criminal laws at this stage is an overreaction and an act of intimidation”. However, the Guild did not name the UP police in its statement.
