A popular news anchor and a BJP leader have been booked for allegedly ‘doctoring’ a video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
The news anchor to be booked is Rohit Ranjan of Zee News and the BJP leader is the party’s spokesperson Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.
The anchor-BJP leader duo was booked late on Saturday night for allegedly spreading falsehood by ‘doctoring’ Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s comment in Kerala.
It is being alleged that the video of Rahul Gandhi was ‘doctored’, so as to make it appear as if it was a remark on the Udaipur tailor’s murder.
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The case against the news anchor and former union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore was registered based on a complaint lodged by Congress leader Ram Singh at the Banpark police station under IPC sections 504 (intentional insult), 505 (criminal intimidation), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, etc.), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
The FIR alleged that Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan in his show aired a statement of rahul Gandhi on the SFI violence on his Wayanad office and mischievously doctored it to make it seem like it was a comment on the heinous murder of Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur.
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Congress leader Ram Singh, in his complaint, claimed that the video was allegedly ‘doctored’ by the media group in conspiracy with former union minister and BJP leader Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Major Surendra Poonia (retired) and Kamlesh Saini, who also shared the clip on Twitter to reap political advantage and trigger public sentiments.
“The anchor and the promoters of the TV channel were clearly aware that what Gandhi stated was for the youngsters in Wayanad and not the killers of Kanhaiya Lal,” the complainant said in the FIR.
Zee News, however, has issued an apology, with Ranjan saying, “Yesterday, in our show DNA, Rahul Gandhi’s statement was taken in the wrong context by linking it to the Udaipur incident, it was a human error for which our team apologises.”