Uttar Pradesh: The Police have filed a first-information report (FIR) against the news website The Wire and two of its reporters for allegedly spreading false information and trying to incite religious animosity through a video about the demolition of a mosque in Barabanki district in May, the website said on Friday. In the past 14 months, the Uttar Pradesh Police has filed four FIRs against the news organization.
According to the Barabanki administration, the 100-year-old mosque was an illegal residential complex and was demolished on an order from the sub-divisional magistrate’s court. The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board had called the decision an abuse of power.
On Wednesday, The Wire posted a video documentary about the demolition. In it, members of the mosque’s committee claimed to have proof of the structure’s legality. Magistrate Adarsh Singh stated in the video that the police threw religious scriptures into a river after the demolition. ‘Such an incident never happened’, he said. In the FIR, two journalists were named, Seraj Ali and Mukul Chauhan. Ahmad Anees, a member of the mosque committee, was also named in the case.
The charges were brought under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups), 505 (1) (b) (intent to cause or likely to cause fear or alarm among the public), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The Wire’s founding editor, Siddharth Varadarajan, characterized the case as baseless. ‘It is the Adityanath government which doesn’t believe in the free press, and which criminalizes journalists who report on what’s happening in the state,’ he said.
The Wire was sued for posts concerning the assault on a Muslim man in Ghaziabad on June 14. The first information report was filed against Siddharth Varadarajan in January for tweeting an article stating that a farmer killed during a tractor rally on Republic Day had been shot by police. Ayodhya Police had also filed an FIR against Varadarajan for a news report in April 2020.
Demolition
According to the Barabanki administration, the mosque was an ‘illegal residential complex’. The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board condemned the demolition as an ‘act against law and misuse of power’. Zufar Faruqi, the chairperson of the board, said that the Allahabad High Court had barred demolitions in the state until May 31. In addition, the board plans to file a lawsuit against the demolition. According to the Barabanki district magistrate, stakeholders of the mosque filed a writ petition in the High Court stating that a demolition was imminent. The complex’s residents fled after the March 15 notice, he said.
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On March 18, the High Court ruled that the petitioners were served with the notice of seeking documentary evidence, not for demolition purposes. The management committee was also instructed to file a reply to the notice within 15 days, in addition to the one already filed. According to the district magistrate, after the petitioners submitted their replies on April 2, it was revealed that the building was illegal, and, consequently, the demolition was carried out on May 17.
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