The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Uttar Pradesh Police to restrain from taking any coercive action against Abhishek Upadhyay, an independent journalist who flagged the alleged misappropriation of Ayodhya’s Ram Temple donations, in an FIR regarding a road rage case. The court’s order came after senior advocate Pradeep Rai, appearing for Mr. Upadhyay, submitted that his client had committed the “unpardonable sin of exposing the Ram Mandir donation issue”. Mr. Rai stated that he did not want any other relief other than a fair investigation.
The senior advocate, who is also the newly-elected Supreme Court Bar Association president, said the police had not even handed over to the journalist a copy of the FIR and CCTV footage, which would help him defend himself in a court of law. The court ordered the Ghaziabad Police Commissioner to provide Mr. Upadhyay with the copies of the FIR and CCTV footage, and file a compliance report in the Supreme Court on the next date of hearing on September 7. The court said the interim protection against police action would extend to any other FIRs filed in the interregnum against Mr. Upadhyay in order to give him “breathing space and time”.
Chief Justice Kant said, “We can protect you for the time being. Meanwhile, he can approach the jurisdictional High Court. We appreciate that you have an imminent apprehension of repetitive FIRs against you.” The court noted that the allegation against Mr. Upadhyay was that his SUV had hit a two-wheeler, following which he had shouted caste-based abuses at the scooterist.
Chief Justice Kant stated, “If this was done, it will amount to an offence. If it is a concocted story, you need breathing space and time to make out a case.” Mr. Upadhyay claimed that the FIR was based on concocted allegations against him and was an attempt to harass him for his independent journalistic works. In the plea, he had contended that the FIR copy was not supplied to him and that the police were forcing nearby shopkeepers to delete the CCTV visuals of the relevant time.
