The Supreme Court heard a plea filed by Republic TV's editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami to quash 100-plus FIRs that were filed against him in various parts of the country on Friday, and granted him protection from arrest for a period of three weeks.
The court stated that no coercive action must be taken against Goswami. The matter was heard by Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah.
FIRs were filed against the news anchor in Maharashtra, Telangana, Jammu and Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh over comments he made against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on his show about the Palghar lynching incident, where two Hindu seers and their driver were beaten to death on April 16. They were traveling in a car and when they stopped near a village in Palghar district, and were lynched on the suspicion that they were child lifters.
On his show, Goswami questioned why Congress President Sonia Gandhi was not speaking up on the incident, and if she would have remained silent if the people who died were not Hindu but Christian. Furthermore, he said that the Congress chief must feel happy that "Hindu sants were killed in a state ruled by the Congress." The comments were widely criticised, following which the FIRs were filed.
In the next three weeks, Goswami will have to move a plea for anticipatory bail before the trial court to extend his protection, or take other measures that are available to him under the law.
