Lawfare, Summons/Notices – Journalists

On 14 April 2020, Ashlin Mathew, news editor of National Herald newspaper, was booked along with former Indian Administrative Service officer Kannan Gopinathan and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan by Rajkot police, Gujarat for posting and retweeting a tweet on 28 March 2020.

As per the FIR lodged at Bhaktinagar police station based on a complaint by an army veteran, the tweet “insulted a religion with intention to create fear or alarm among people”. The FIR was filed under sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intention to insult the religion of any class), 505(1) (B) (intent to cause fear or alarm among public), 35 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.