Republic Day Violence: Shashi Tharoor, Rajdeep Sardesai move SC over sedition case filed against them

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Rajdeep Sardesai and Mrinal Pande have moved the Supreme Court on the FIR charged against them for tweeting “malafide, defamatory, false and misleading” tweets over the farmers’ tractor rally on Republic Day accusing the Delhi Police of killing a farmer.

The Delhi police and Gurugram police had lodged an FIR against them for instigating violence by posting misleading tweets over the social media during the farmers’ tractor parade on Republic Day.

Further the Gurugram Police FIR stated, “This was clearly done with an intent to engineer large-scale riots and religious tension among different communities. This particularly assumes much significance as the ramifications of such riots and religious tensions would affect a sensitive state sharing international border. The accused persons have deliberately, without any authentication, fact-checking and verifying, purposefully posted fake, misleading and wrong information to instigate violence against the protesters, the farmer community in general and to add fuel to fire in the current protests for their own political and personal advantage.”

On January 26, thousands of protesting farmers had clashed with the police during the tractor rally at Red Fort called by the farmer unions to highlight their demand for repeal of the Centre’s three farm laws.

Inputs from The Hindu

By Swarnali Chakraborty