Telangana HC Issue Notices to Police for Registering FIR Based on Allegations
Hyderabad: Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy of the Telangana High Court on Wednesday has taken up a writ petition filed by one M. Vinod Kumar, challenging a complaint registered against him under the Information Technology Act.
The writ petition questions the power of the police in lodging a First Information Report (FIR) based upon a fact-check article posted by Mohammed Zubair, co-founder ALT News website.
According to the petitioner, a complaint was lodged by AIMIM MLA, Mohammed Majid Hussain, wherein he stated that he was lodging the complaint at the instance of AIMIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi.
The AIMIM MLA’s complaint alleged that the petitioner had posted on social media a pictorial representation of a person urinating into a container full of gulab jamuns meant for human consumption. The complainant further stated that a fact-check of the posted images revealed that they were morphed and were posted to disturb communal harmony.
The station house officer, cybercrime police station registered the FIR based on the complaint, which in itself was based on a fact check conducted by a third party.
Arguing for the petitioner, senior counsel L. Ravichander pointed out that the very registration of the FIR is bad in law, and contrary to fact and procedure established i.e., Standard Operation Procedure and also the procedure established under the BNSS.
He said that the police erred in entertaining the complaint without investigating into the alleged complaint and without verifying the credentials of the fact-check article. He said that registration of the FIR by taking the alleged fact-check article as the Gospel truth, shows the motive of the police authorities who are expected to be unbiased.
The petitioner not only sought a declaration that the registration of the FIR was illegal but also sought the prosecution of Mohammed Zubair against whom the petitioner enlisted six pending criminal cases. The judge after hearing the petitioner ordered notices and posted the matter for further hearing.
