In another major development in the 26th January violent incident, Shashi Tharoor, the Member of Parliament (MP) of the Indian National Congress (INC) has been booked.
The Noida Police filed a case for sedition charges in connection to the Delhi tractor rally incident.
Along with MP Shashi Tharoor, six journalists were also booked under a few sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC.)
The FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 124A (sedition), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and others.
The FIR was lodged at the Sector 20 Police Station at Noida based on a complaint by a resident of the area. In his complaint he named Mr. Tharoor and six journalists, Mrinal Pande, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vinod Jose, Zafar Agha, Paresh Nath and Anant Nath for posting social media posts and held them responsible for the 26th of January violence.
They have also been booked under the relevant provisions of the Information Technology Act.
The complainant claimed their social media posts to be misreporting and were spreading disharmony during the clashes between the police and protesting farmers on Republic Day.
The 26th January’s farmers tractor rally created a ruckus at Red Fort and the National Capital. The protest rally which was supposed to be a peaceful act, took a violent turn after the farmers hoisted Guru Saheb’s (Sikh Religion God) religious flag after removing the National Flag.
Many media outlets claimed the religious Sikh flag to be the flag of Khalistan, which rolled out violence.
Nearly 300 police officials were injured and a 27 year old protestor lost his life.
The tractor rally was called by the protesting farmers of Haryana and Punjab and several farmer unions against the three farm laws.
Thousands of farmers are protesting at three borders of New Delhi against the three farm laws.
Meanwhile, the Delhi police filed 25 criminal cases, arrested 19 people and detained as many as 200 people in connection to the Delhi Republic Day incident.
Lookout notices have also been issued to the farmer union leaders. They were asked to report and explain why there should not be any legal action against the farmer unions in regard to the violent incident.
The Delhi police are investigating the matter..
Stay tuned for further updates.
