Rahul Gandhi video: Chhattisgarh Police summon news anchor Rohit Ranjan to Raipur for probe

Photo for representational purpose.

The Chhattisgarh Police have summoned Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan and some of his colleagues to probe into allegations of airing a doctored video of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, officials said on Wednesday.

A team of the Chhattisgarh Police on Wednesday stayed put in the national capital region for a second day as it continued its search with an arrest warrant for Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan.

The visiting policemen went to the TV anchor's home in Ghaziabad in the morning and later to his office in Noida Film City, the officials said.

"A notice was pasted outside the home of the absconding Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan while summons have been issued to his colleagues in the office. They have been asked to come to Raipur now on July 12 to get their statement recorded in connection with our probe," a visiting Chhattisgarh police official told PTI requesting anonymity. The Chhattisgarh police team also informed the local Indirapuram police station in Ghaziabad in the morning and later went to the SSP office to lodge a complaint related to their probe, the official said.

In Noida, the visitors once again went to the Sector 20 police station to seek information like the FIR copy and whereabouts of Ranjan but claimed that they did not get any help.

Meanwhile, the Noida police also went to the Zee News office on Wednesday afternoon shortly after their Chhattisgarh counterparts reached there.

"We came here in view of the law and order situation because there was information about a protest by local Congress workers," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Ranvijay Singh told reporters outside the Zee office.

However, no protest or demonstration took place there.

On allegations of non-cooperation by Chhattisgarh cops, Singh strongly refuted all charges.

"They had come to arrest someone from Ghaziabad, should have coordinated with the local cops. The Noida police is not bound to give them any information," he said.

"If they write to us or contact us for any matter as per procedures, we will talk to them," Singh said. However, the Chhattisgarh Police team claimed they have been running pillar to post in Noida for cooperation but to no avail.

The 11-member police team led by DSP Udayan Behar from Raipur had reached the Ghaziabad home of the TV anchor on Tuesday morning but he was taken into custody by the Noida police amid a high drama also involving the local Ghaziabad policemen.

On Tuesday night, the Noida police said they had released Zee News anchor Rohit Ranjan on bail after questioning him. They said Ranjan was arrested on the basis of evidence in a case lodged by it under IPC Section 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes.)

However, the visiting Chhattisgarh Police officials claimed that their counterparts in Noida and Ghaziabad were not sharing any information regarding the whereabouts of Ranjan with them despite an arrest warrant and a court order.

Congress workers in Noida on Tuesday staged a protest outside the Sector 20 police station and claimed that the Uttar Pradesh Police was protecting the TV anchor from being arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police.

The FIR in Raipur was lodged under IPC Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 467 (forgery), 469 (forgery to harm reputation) and 504 (intentional insult).

On July 2, a day after the video was aired, Ranjan apologised for mistakenly playing Gandhi's statement on vandalisation of his Wayanad office out of context by linking it with the Udaipur murder case.

"It was a human error for which our team is apologetic. We apologise for it," he had tweeted in Hindi.

However, the video was used by several people, including BJP leaders, to attack Gandhi and the Congress party after the Udaipur murder on June 28.

The assailants in Udaipur purportedly admitted their crime in a video clip, saying it was meant to avenge an insult to Islam.

FIRs have been lodged in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur and Raipur, in Uttar Pradesh's Noida, and in Rajasthan in connection with Gandhi's doctored video.

Congress legislator Yadav, whose FIR in Raipur led to the Chhattisgarh Police action, has also accused the director and chairman of Zee News, and its chief executive officer for conspiring to spread fabricated and fake news against Gandhi in a bid to incite communal riots and disturb social harmony, a police official said.

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