The Himachal Pradesh High Court ordered the dismissal of all charges against journalist Aman Bhardwaj. He was booked for exposing flaws in the state government's e-pass system during the Covid pandemic.
The court noted that Bhardwaj did not use the passes to enter Himachal Pradesh. He also brought the flaw in the system to the notice of higher authorities.
The 26-year-old runs a channel called Zee Punjab Haryana Himachal. During the pandemic, he applied for two e-passes to enter the state under the names Amitabh Bachchan and Donald Trump. The government department registered and emailed the passes to him.
After Aman aired the report about the incident and flaws in the system on his channel, the director of the state's information technology department filed an FIR for forgery, cheating, and false warning.
The High Court instructed the police to drop all charges noting that Bhardwaj did not have the intention to commit fraud. The bench observed that the journalist was trying to run a reality check and verify the working of the system of online registration and generation of e-passes, reported NDTV.
The journalist had used his own phone number and Aadhar number to apply for both e-passes. The court pointed out that the authorities should have been able to notice the identities and Aadhar numbers did not match.