Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay the police investigation into some people who were accused of instigating communal disharmony in Tripura with fake news and rumours. sources from New Delhi said. The bench however ordered notice on the petition and directed that no coercive steps be taken against the petitioners.
Ansari Haq Ansari from Bhogal in New Delhi, a Shyam Meera Singh of New Delhi who claimed to be a journalist and another person from Mukesh from Ghaziabad, had filed a petition before the Supreme Court seeking an order to quash the FIR filed by the Tripura police against them.
The case was heard by the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief N V Ramana , Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Surya Kant.
The Supreme Court is also to tag the case with other pending petition where UAPA is under challenge.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the two lawyers had visited Tripura and published a fact-finding report the communal violence, which led to the Tripura police issuing notices under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure against them asking their appearance for interrogation in relation to the FIR under UAPA.
At this point, the CJI observed that he read some news reports that the journalists were granted bail in the Tripura FIRs. Mr.Bhushan clarified that they were two other journalists, and the petitioners are yet to be arrested.
The West Agartala Police served notices to Delhi-based human rights lawyers Mukesh of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties and Ansar Indori of National Confederation of Human Rights stating that a case has been registered against them under Section 13(punishment for unlawful activities) of the UAPA over their social media posts and statements.
A day before the notice, the lawyers had held a press conference, which was streamed through Facebook live, to release the fact-finding report titled “Humanity under Attack in Tripura #MuslimsLivesMatter”, which mentioned the attacks on 12 masjids, 9 shops and 3 homes belonging to Muslims. Supreme Court lawyer Ehtesham Hashmi led the fact-finding team. Advocate Amit Srivastav(Coordination Committee , Lawyers for Democracy)was the other member of the team.
The fact-finding team demanded the constitution of an inquiry committee headed by a retired High Court judge to investigate the incidents, compensation to victims, reparation of damaged religious places etc. Significantly, the team had also demanded strict action against people and organizations who made provocative and false posts in social media to incite people.
