Prashant Kanojia, a freelance journalist was arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police for posting a tweet on Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was asked to release today by Supreme Court immediately today. Prashant Kanojia was arrested by the police on Saturday for tweeting and posting on Facebook against UP CM Yogi Adityanath.
Vacation bench of the Supreme Court consisting of Justices Indira Banerjee and Ajay Rastogi took note of the submission of lawyer Nitya Ramakrishnan, appearing for Prashant Kanojia’s wife Jagisha Arora, that the plea demanded urgent hearing as the arrest was “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.
The UP police had a different perspective to the case and they defended Kanojia’s arrest, saying he had made inflamatory tweets in the past too. “He has been making inflamatory tweets in the past not only with respect to caste matters but also gods and godesses and that’s why he was arrested,” said additional solicitor general Vikramjeet Banerjee. The UP government countered the bail application filed by his wife who challenged Prashant Kanojia’s arrest. But, The Supreme Court slammed UP government’s arguments and said, “Have you ever some across remand for 11 days in such a case? Sit behind the bars day after day and challenge the order? That is not a very fair stand.” The Supreme Court was also of the view that it does not appreciate such tweets but it cannot be a ground to put him behind the bars. A group of journalists and activists held a protest in Delhi on Monday over the arrest of journalist Prashant Kanojia and the editor and the head of a Noida-based TV channel by the Uttar Pradesh Police, alleging that it is an attack on the freedom of expression.
Expressing dissatisfaction over the prosecutor’s remarks, the bench said that the Magistrate’s order of remanding Kanojia till June 22 was “not appropriate”. The bench added it “need not comment on the contents of the tweets” and that “the question is, should the petitioner have been deprived of his liberty over them.” The court also said that opinions may vary and one should not be arrested for this.
