By Weindrila Sen
The Allahabad High Court had sanctioned protection from arrest to Executive Editor and Editor in Chief of Scroll.in, Ms. Supriya Sharma. The FIR was filed against her for her misrepresented statement. The FIR was lodged at the Ramnagar Police Station by a resident of Domari village of Varanasi, named Mala Devi. The Division Bench of Justice Anil Kumar-IX and Justice Manoj Misra had taken under consideration an audio recording which Ms. Supriya claimed to be in possession. The content of the recording is also reflected in her publication. The bench denied quashing the FIR as the allegations against her were of a cognizable offense. The Court granted her relief based on a few terms and conditions-
“considering the facts and circumstances of the case and keeping in mind that the petitioners claim that they have an audio recording of the interview, the contents of which were reflected in the publication, we deem it appropriate to dispose of this petition by providing that investigation of the case shall continue and brought to its logical conclusion but petitioners shall not be arrested in the above case till submission of a police report under Section 173 (2) CrPC. provided they cooperate in the investigation”.
The FIR was lodged against her after she published a report titled ‘In Varanasi village adopted by Prime Minister Modi, people went hungry during the lockdown.’ Ms. Sharma had quoted Mala Devi, an alleged domestic worker going through severe hardship during the COVID-19 crisis. However, Mala Devi claimed that neither she is a domestic help nor did she comment on anything that was published, she said that all her statements were misrepresented by Ms. Sharma.
Ms. Sharma had refuted to all the allegations and had also submitted the recordings to show that the truth behind her report.