Supreme Court has accorded protection to the journalist Vinod Dua against the arrest in a sedition case filed against him by a BJP leader in Himachal Pradesh. The bench has decided to hear Dua’s plea on the next Wednesday.
SC bench headed by Justice U U Lalit heard the matter through video conferencing on Tuesday and has restrained the HP police from arresting Dua. As the journalist has joined the investigation through a virtual medium, the bench also said that the journalist need not answer the supplementary questions of police in the sedition case.
The apex court had assembled on Sunday and decided to extend the protection to the reporter against any kind of coercive action till further orders.
On May, BJP leader Shyam has lodged the FIR against Vinod Dua for the offenses of sedition, public nuisance, printing defamatory materials, and public mischief under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code in Kumarsain police station in Shimla district.
The FIR was registered against the journalist alleging of making derogatory remarks on his Youtube show. Shyam alleged that Vinod Dua accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using “death and terror attacks to get votes”.
