Supreme Court asks UP police to release journalist held for 'defaming' Yogi Adityanath
New Delhi, Jun 11 (IBNS): In a setback for the Uttar Pradesh police, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the release of journalist Prashant Kanojia who was arrested for allegedly defaming state Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, media reports said.
In a Twitter post, the police said he was arrested for posting "objectionable content" against Yogi Adityanath.
In total, five people were arrested in connection with the "objectionable" post.
Delivering its judgement, the top court said normally it doesn't entertain these pleas but a person cannot be in jail for 11 days.
The Editors Guild on Sunday condemned the arrests in connection with the incident.
"The police action is high-handed, arbitrary and amounts to an authoritarian misuse of laws," the Guild had said in a statement as reported by News18.
In a similar incident recently in West Bengal, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Priyanka Sharma was arrested for posting a morphed image of state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Later, Sharma was released upon condition.
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