Supreme Court on Monday has restrained Tripura police from taking any further action against journalist Samiullah Khan, who had tweeted about violence in the North Eastern state, last year.
While hearing a petition filed by Samiullah Khan, the division benches of Supreme court judge Justice DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna said, “writing about violence will certainly not attract any of the offences.”
The petition was moved by Associate for Protection of Civil Rights against invocation of Unlawful Activities (Prevention Act (UAPA) against 102 people for allegedly spreading distorted and objectionable content about the violence in the state in October 2021.
Tripura Police had sent a notice to Twitter, under Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), asking the microblogging site to remove khan’s tweet and sought details of the IP address and phone number for investigation in the criminal cases registered against him.
The other Twitter handles against whom the police have sought action include those of journalists Mohammad Sartaj Alam, Shyam Meera Singh and CJ Werleman, and two lawyers – Mukesh Kumar and Ansar Indori and former Aligarh Muslim University student leader Sharjeel Usmani.
Singh had said that the BJP-led Tripura government slapped UAPA charges against him for his tweet, “Tripura is burning.”
After attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh 2021, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindu right wing outfit had organised a protest rally in Tripura on October 26, which led to violence and attacks on mosques, shops and homes of Muslims. The police, however, claimed that the law and order situation in the state was “absolutely normal” and “no mosques had been burnt.”
