Report On Farmer's Death : UP Court Grants Interim Protection From Arrest To Siddharth Varadarajan, Ismat Ara Of 'The Wire'

The FIR has been lodged against them at the instance of one Sanju Turaha at the Civil Lines police station of Rampur under Sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505(2) (public mischief) of IPC.

The matter finds its genesis from a report run by the Wire on January 30 which published the claims of Navreet Singh's grandfather Hardeep Singh Dibdiba that his death was due to a bullet injury from a police gun fire was not due to the overturning of the tractor as alleged by the Delhi police.

In the report, the 65-yrs old grandfather goes on to claim that the doctor who performed Navreet's autopsy had told him that there was a bullet injury on Navreet's body but he cannot do anything as his "hands are tied".

The report was authored by Ismat Ara and was shared by Varadarajan on his Twitter account.

Responding to Varadarajan's tweet, the Rampur District Magistrate had tweeted, "Hope you understand your story could cause law and order problem here. It has already caused tensed situation here. Responsibility?"

The matter came before the Sessions Judge, Rampur, on Thursday where the duo expressed apprehension of arrest and sought interim protection. They urged the Court to grant them interim bail application until the case is disposed of.

The District Government Advocate on the other hand sought time to produce status report and the case diary.

Keeping these facts and circumstances in mind, the Sessions Judge was allowed the prayer and stayed their arrests.

"The applicants have expressed the possibility of getting arrested. At this stage, only the FIR report is available. Looking at the facts and circumstances of the matter, applicants Siddharth Varadarajan and Ismat Ara have been granted interim bail and their arrests in this matter have been stayed," the order stated.

In a related news, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday issued notice on a petition filed by Dibdiba, seeking a Court monitored probe in to Navreet's death.