New Delhi, The Supreme Court has agreed to hear on Tuesday a plea of a journalist, who flagged alleged irregularities in the handling of donations at Ayodhya’s Ram temple, challenging an FIR lodged against him by the Ghaziabad police in an alleged road rage case.
“Multiple FIRs have been filed against him and now an FIR under the stringent provisions of the SC/ST Act has also been filed. I have filed my writ petition. In the plea, he has contended that the FIR copy has not been supplied to him and that the police were forcing nearby shopkeepers to delete the CCTV visuals of the relevant time. Upadhyay sought quashing of the FIR, or in the alternative, its investigation be transferred to an independent agency other than the Uttar Pradesh Police. “The petitioner apprehends imminent arrest and further physical harm and states that, in view of the aforesaid sequence, he is not in a position to safely approach the high court of Judicature at Allahabad.
The police raided his house on August 20. Yesterday also, the police came at 5 o’clock.
“He apprehends that he may be arrested or subjected to physical harm by planted goons of the state machinery in the State of Uttar Pradesh before he can obtain effective judicial protection,” the plea said. The fresh plea was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana which agreed to list for hearing the plea of journalist Abhishek Upadhyay on Tuesday. I request that it may be listed today or tomorrow, whatever is possible,” his counsel said. The CJI then agreed to list the matter for hearing on Tuesday subject to curing of defects in the petition.
