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The Founder-cum-editor of The Wire Siddharth Varadarajan and journalist Ismat Ara were given interim protection from arrest in an FIR filed against them by a sessions court in Uttar Pradesh. The FIR at Civil Lines Police Station, Rampur was registered under Section 153 B and section 505 (2) of the Indian Penal Code regarding a piece of news published on the website on the death of Navreet Singh, a man who died during the riots in Delhi on January 26 this year. Varadarajan and Ara expressed the fear of arrest by UP police and pleaded for interim protection until the case is disposed of before the sessions court in Rampur.
Background of the case
A report on Navreet Singh's death that was authored by Ismat Ara and shared by Siddharth Varadarajan on Twitter was run by The Wire on its website last month which published claims of Hardeep Singh Didiba, the 65-year-old grandfather of Navreet Singh that his grandson had died due to him getting hit by a bullet fired by the police and not in a tractor accident. In addition to that, he also claimed that the doctor who had performed an autopsy on Navreet's body told him that he died because of the bullet injury but he could not do anything as his "hands were tied", implying that the police and the government were trying to coverup the incident.
It is to be noted that the autopsy report released by the district hospital in Rampur stated that the deceased had died due to shock and hemorrhage caused by a head injury that had occurred before his death, which supported the explanation of events by Delhi Police.
In response to the news, the District Magistrate of Rampur tweeted his concerns under Varadarajan's tweet that the report might cause a law-and-order problem in the state and had already created a tense situation.
The news published by The Wire is attached below.
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