The Uttar Pradesh Police on Monday, 13 April, offered to accept over email the statement of Siddharth Varadarajan, a senior journalist and editor of The Wire, he wrote on Twitter.
The police had earlier served him a notice to appear in court on 14 April, in connection with an FIR registered against him for a ‘disreputable’ comment made against UP CM Yogi Adityanath, even amidst the nationwide lockdown over COVID-19.
In his response to the police, he wrote that an official circular allowed the accused in such cases to record their statement via email or SpeedPost.
He said that in order for him to provide a useful statement, they would need to send him a copy of the FIR and the details of the specific act he is accused of.
The retraction comes as more than 200 journalists across the country issued a statement on 11 April condemning the muzzling of the media, according to Frontline.
The Editors Guild of India reportedly called the FIR “an overreaction and an act of intimidation”.
The Uttar Pradesh Police had on 1 April registered an FIR against the veteran journalist over comments on Twitter claiming that the day Tablighi Jamaat held its event in Delhi, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had insisted that a Ram Navami fair would take place as usual.
The FIR also mentioned his remark, questioning Adityanath's participation at a religious ceremony at the Ramjanmabhoomi site in Ayodhya during the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus.
As a clarification, the journalist later tweeted:
“I should clarify that it was Acharya Paramhans, Hindutva stalwart and head of the official Ayodhya temple trust, who said Ram would protect devotees from coronavirus, and not Adityanath, though he allowed a public event on 25/3 in defiance of the lockdown and took part himself.”
In a series of tweets, Varadarajan’s wife said that a number of policemen had visited the couple’s home in New Delhi on Friday, 10 April, and served notice. In response to the FIR, Varadarajan had called it ‘politically motivated’.
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