Newslaundry journalist booked under criminal defamation for a tweet

Lucknow: The UP police have booked Newslaundry journalist Nidhi Suresh on defamation charges filed by Deep Srivatsava, a News18 journalist. The FIR on defamation has been registered based on a tweet allegedly Nidhi had made but there is reportedly no mention of the nature of the tweet in the FIR.

Nidhi had recently reported the case of Ayesha Alvi, a Hindu woman who recently converted to Islam. Ayesha approached the Delhi High Court alleging that someone extorted Rs 20,000 from her threatening that he will publish the story about her conversion. When Nidhi contacted the phone number from which Ayesha received the call, the person on the other end identified as Deep Srivatsava, said the Newslaundry report. Deep denied the allegations about extortion.

Nidhi received a call on the morning of July 5 asking her to record her statement in Shahjahanpur. She informed the investigating officer that she was in Delhi. Despite that, she received another call later in the day asking to make an in-person statement, said the Newslaundry report.

The FIR was registered under Sections 500 (punishment for defamation) and 501 (Printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory) of CrPC.

The police cannot register an FIR based on a criminal defamation complaint made directly by the complainant because it is a non-cognizable offence as per the Code of Criminal Procedure. The police are authorised to register an FIR under section 200 based on the instructions of a judicial magistrate. The complainant needs to approach a magistrate to file the complaint, reported The News Minute.