Another journalist at a Noida-based TV channel has been arrested allegedly over defamatory content against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, said officials.
Nation Live editor Anshul Kaushik was arrested on Monday night and remanded in 14-day judicial custody on Tuesday, on the same charges as the channel head Ishika Singh and editor Anuj Shukla.
During a debate on the channel on Thursday, 6 June, a woman had allegedly made defamatory statements against Adityanath.
Third Journalist of Nation Live to Be Arrested
"Editor Anshul Kaushik of Nation Live was arrested last night and produced in the district and sessions court in Surajpur, Gautam Buddh Nagar. The court has remanded him in 14-day judicial custody,” a police officer privy to the probe told PTI, requesting anonymity.
"One more editor of the channel is absconding and police are on the lookout for him as well," the officer said.
This is the third arrest in the case in which the district administration and the police themselves had taken cognizance to lodge two FIRs and also reported the matter to the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting after it emerged during the probe that the Noida-based news channel did not have requisite licences to operate.
Kaushik was arrested under Sections 153 (promoting enmity between different groups), 501 (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory), 505 (1) (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report) and 505 [2] (statements conducing to public mischief), the officials said.
An additional complaint over the illegal operation of the channel was made by the district additional director, information, at the Phase 3 police station following which an FIR under Sections 420 (fraud), 467 (forgery of documents) and related offences was registered, police said.
Police had on Sunday sealed the premises of the channel in Block B of Sector 65 amid protests by social activists and the Editors Guild of India, which described the episode an attempt to "intimidate" the press and "stifle the freedom of expression".
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