Cases had been filed against the TV anchor in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh
A Zee TV news anchor, Rohit Ranjan, was detained by the police from his home near Delhi today, days after the channel ran a misleading Rahul Gandhi video for which it had apologised.
Policemen from two states - Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh and BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh - are seen fighting and jostling for the anchor's custody in a dramatic video filmed this morning. The Chhattisgarh police tried to arrest the anchor but were stopped by the police in UP's Ghaziabad, who took him away. Rohit Ranjan had tweeted an SOS to the Uttar Pradesh police, tagging Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, when the Chhattisgarh team landed at his home around 5.30 am. He alleged that the Chhattisgarh police had arrived to take him into custody without informing the local police.
The Chhattisgarh police replied that it didn't need to inform anyone as long there was a warrant.
The Ghaziabad police took the journalist to an unknown location, preventing his arrest by the Chhattisgarh team. He is currently in the custody of the UP police facing relatively lighter, bailable charges.
Cases were filed in Congress-ruled states Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh soon after Rohit Ranjan, on his show, played a Rahul Gandhi statement on an attack on his office in Kerala's Wayanad and allegedly ran it as a comment on the Udaipur tailor's killers.
The video was shared by BJP leaders like Rajyavardhan Rathore, who has also been charged in an FIR.
The channel apologised and Mr Ranjan said on his show, "Yesterday, in our show DNA, Rahul Gandhi's statement was taken in the wrong context by linking it to the Udaipur incident, it was a human error for which our team apologises."
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was referring to the attack on his Wayanad office when he said, "The children who did this have acted in an irresponsible way. They are kids, forgive them."
"But the way the TV channel and the anchor ran the video made it seem like Rahul Gandhi was saying those who killed Kanhaiya Lal in Udaipur were kids and should be forgiven," Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said.
Rahul Gandhi, apparently referring to the misleading video, tweeted, "The whole country knows the history of the BJP-RSS; they are pushing the country into the fire of hatred . No matter how much these traitors try to break the country, the Congress will continue to do more to unite India."