Supreme court
Supreme Court

Last Updated on January 10, 2022 5: 55pm

The Supreme Court has restrained the Tripura Police from taking any coercive action against activist-journalist Samiullah Shabbir Khan for his tweets on the communal violence that happened in the BJP-ruled State in October last year.

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A Division Bench of JusticesDY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna restrained the police from taking further action against the journalist and issued notice to the police on the plea, Bar and Bench reported.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights against the invocation of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) against more than 100 people who took to social media to comment on the violence in Tripura.

A mosque and shops belonging to the Muslim community were vandalized during a protest carried out by a right-wing group in Tripura.

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The Tripura Police had sent a notice under Section 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to Twitter, regarding Khan’s tweets about the violence.

In the notice, the police asked Twitter to remove his tweet and sought details of the IP address and phone number for the purpose of investigation in the criminal cases registered against him.

In November last year, the Supreme Court had granted protection from arrest to two advocates and one journalist who were booked under the UAPA in connection with their social media posts and work related to the communal violence in Tripura.

The Tripura Police had booked the petitioners including journalist Shyam Meera Singh and certain other activists and lawyers for offences punishable under the UAPA.