SC Stays Arrest Of Tharoor And 6 Journalist For “Misleading Tweets”

Tharoor and 6 others arrest stayed by SC on Jan 26 violence case

The arrest of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai and 5 others was stayed by the Supreme Court on Tuesday. They had challenged the registration of multiple FIR registered against them for allegedly sharing unconfirmed news on the death of one of the protestors during the tractor rally organized by the protesting farmers on January 26 on Republic Day. The senior lawyer appearing for Tharoor and Sardesai is Kapil Sibal who sought a stay on the arrest of his clients and said “My lord, I seek an immediate relief in the case.”

The bench comprising Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, Justice AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said “We stay the arrest till we hear the matter further.” A notice was also issued by the apex court to the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and others where it sought replies for the registration of the FIR’s.

Beside Tharoor and Sardesai the other accused members also got a relief and cannot be arrested till further hearing in the case from the apex court. The others list includes Anant Nath, Paresh Nath, Mrinal Pandey, Zafar Agha and Vinod K Jose. On the tractor rally violence on January 26 they all had allegedly made incorrect statements and reported wrongly and this led to registration of several FIR’s in multiple states.