Pinnacle court grants interim protection to Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan in misleading news on Rahul Gandhi case

Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan has been granted interim protection from arrest by the Apex Court after two FIRs were filed against him on complaints of the INC.

The bench comprising justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari issued orders restraining authorities in multiple states from taking coercive steps against Rohit Ranjan.

“We direct that no coercive steps be taken against by respondent authorities or take him into custody in relevancy DNA program on national holiday,” the court said in its order.

Appearing for Ranjan, Senior Adv Siddharth Luthra said that multiple FIRs were filed for the identical offence in Noida, Jaipur and Chhattisgarh. He also informed that Rohit Ranjan has already apologised for the error within the show.

Rohit Ranjan went SC after Chhattisgarh police had initiated action against him for a misleading claim made within the show Daily News and Analysis on Zee News, which is being hosted by Ranjan after Sudhir Chaudhary left the network last week. within the show on national holiday, Rahul Gandhi’s treat the attack on his office in Wayanad by SFI goons were used as his comments on the Kanhaiya Lal murder by mistake.

Both Rohit Ranjan and Zee News had apologised for the error, but still Congress party had filed multiple FIRs.

In the plea, it absolutely was argued that the channel had received a video of Rahul Gandhi’s interaction with the press from news organisation ANI, and a trainee producer made the error of using the comments on attack on his office within the context of the Udaipur murder. After the error was realised, the show was retracted and also the channel had expressed regret on air.

The plea is seeking clubbing all the FIR, and quashing of the identical.

In a significant development, the bench also said that as multiple FIRs were filed in multiple states against the identical person for the identical alleged offence, the TT Antony case will apply. In the T.T. Antony vs State Of Kerala case in 2001, the Supreme Court of India had ruled that when a second FIR is filed within the same case, if it's not significantly different from the primary case, it'll not be valid and such FIRs can’t be filed.

According to the landmark verdict of the apex court, subsequent FIRs can only be filled if there are additional discoveries in a very case and extra charges are slapped against the accused. While the bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and JK Maheshwari has agreed to upheld this ruling, earlier the bench of Justices Surya Kant and J. B. Pardiwala had refused to follow it in Nupur Sharma case. As dozens of FIRs are filed against former BJP spokesperson for her comments on Prophet Mohammad, she had filed a plea to club all of them and transfer them to Delhi, but the Supreme Court had rejected that petition.