Supreme Court stays FIRs against OpIndia editors, gives anchor protection from arrest

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed FIRs registered by West Bengal Police against editors of news portal OpIndia and gave protection from arrest to news anchor Amish Devgan, who faces multiple FIRs over remarks made during a TV show.

The plea by OpIndia editor Nupur Sharma was taken up via video-conference by a vacation bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and B R Gavai.

The petition pointed out that West Bengal police had registered three FIRs against OpIndia staffers Sharma, Ajeet Bharti and Rahul Roushan over reports on the website. It said although other news outlets also carried write-ups on the subject, the police had singled out OpIndia, and the “authoritarian Kolkata police” was using registration of FIRs as an excuse to “intimidate journalists” in getting online content and reports critical of the state government deleted.