Supreme Court issues notice to UP government over journalist’s Ghaziabad FIR

The Supreme Court on Tuesday protected journalist Abhishek Upadhyay from coercive action in a Ghaziabad road-rage FIR and directed police to provide him a copy of the case. It asked him to approach Allahabad High Court for quashing the FIR

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday protected from coercive action a journalist who had flagged alleged irregularities in the handling of donations at Ayodhya’s Ram temple and challenged Ghaziabad Police’s FIR against him in a road rage case.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and directed that a copy of FIR lodged at Indirapuram in Ghaziabad be provided to Abhishek Upadhyay. It also sought a compliance affidavit by the police.

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The top court asked Upadhyay to approach the Allahabad High Court for quashing of the FIR and posted the matter for hearing on September 7. In the plea, Upadhyay contended that the FIR copy had not been supplied to him and that police were forcing nearby shopkeepers to delete the CCTV visuals of the relevant time.

Upadhyay had sought quashing of the FIR or, in the alternative, that investigation be transferred to an independent agency other than the Uttar Pradesh Police. He claimed that the FIR was planted in connection with his reporting on alleged corruption in Uttar Pradesh.