New Delhi: Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani today said that veteran journalist Vinod Dua was trying to “incite riots.”Jethmalani was arguing against the journalist in the hearing of a case before the Supreme Court. The court noted that the Gandhian concept of peaceful demonstrations would not amount to an unlawful assembly.
The bench of Justices U. U. Lalit, Vineet Saran, and Ajay Rastogi was hearing the plea filed by Dua against the accusation of spreading fake news through his YouTube show on the Delhi riots. The allegations are that Dua had accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using death for vote bank politics.
Jethmalani appearing on behalf of the party that filed the FIR in Shimla, submitted that Dua has a leaning against the government and he made false statements that the government did not have enough Covid testing means without any data backing his claim. Jethmalani said Dua made allegations without any substance in a widely viewed broadcast. He said things like “supply chains got disrupted due to blockage of roads.”
“When you talk about possible riots, you are inciting riots. This man was trying to incite riots by showing there is a food shortage or by saying that there will be food shortage, because supply chains are blocked. He has violated the August 31 order of the Supreme Court in relation to the plight of migrant workers. A further order was passed related to incorrect reporting during this disaster. This man has violated those as well,”
-Jethmalani
Jethmalani also stated that statements like: “These quarantine centres were no more than detention centres” was an attempt to dissuade people from being sent to them. Dua has asked people to raise their voice, come out on the streets and be violent like Americans have become, despite the lockdown. He tried to exploit a gigantic pandemic and is a fly-by-night operator who deserves to be investigated.
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Additional Solicitor General SV Raju on behalf of the Union government submitted that even if one cognisable offence is made out, it is sufficient. Journalists are to be treated like ordinary citizens and on a lack of territorial jurisdiction FIRs cannot be quashed.
The matter will next be heard on September 24.
-India Legal Bureau