'The Wire' booked in UP over Gareeb Nawaz mosque demolition report

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday filed a case against the online news portal, The Wire, accusing it of "promoting enmity" and holding an "intent to cause riot" after the portal had aired a documentary on the demolition of a mosque in Barabanki, reports NDTV.

In the FIR, the second one filed in days by UP police against the portal, the police claims that what was demolished was an "unauthorised structure".

The FIR was registered based on a complaint filed by Mahendra Singh alleging that the video report circulated widely on social media and other connected platforms was based on uncertain and baseless facts and it was an attempt to create distress between religious communities.

The Barabanki District Magistrate Adarsh Singh had said in a video statement posted on Twitter that the information The Wire shared in the documentary is baseless and false. The documentary is making outlandish false claims that the administration defiled a sacred space. The news portal's sole intention was to spread discord in the society, he said.

Regarding the case, the Allahabad High Court had issued a notice to the UP government, and it questioned the chances of a mosque existing in a public utility land. Even if the claim is valid, the court sought an explanation on allegations of malafide exercise of power and manner in removing the structure.

Meanwhile, The Wire's founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan said that like the previous three cases lodged against the portal, this is also baseless and cannot intimidate the agency. He further said that the Adityanath government does not believe in media freedom and penalises journalists for reporting truths from the state.

"When people allege the administration's wrongdoings and journalists report them, FIRs are filed immediately against the latter," he said.

Apart from the news portal, the FIR specifically names two journalists working with the portal and the case was filed under sections like "intent to cause riot", "promoting enmity on the grounds of religion", and "criminal conspiracy".

Last week, a case was filed against The Wire, among others, including journalists, Congress leaders, and Twitter. It was for reporting or tweeting an incident in which an old aged Muslim man was tortured for four hours in UP.