FIRs lodged in Shimla against 2 media houses over news reports ‘tarnishing’ image of Congress leaders, Himachal government
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The Newz Radar Network
Amid the Himachal Pradesh government’s warning to media houses to refrain from publishing or airing content that tarnishes the image of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu or the Congress regime, two FIRs have been lodged in capital town Shimla.
Both FIRs have been lodged on July 15, 2024, and under Section 336(4) 61(2) of the newly introduced Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The complainant in both the cases is the same, Pramod Gupta, a resident of Chhota Shimla, an area where Sukhu owns a flat and used to reside before becoming the Chief Minister. The complaint too is the same in both cases: Release of a video on Facebook channel with the aim of tarnishing the image of senior leaders of the Congress and the government of Himachal Pradesh.
The first complaint (FIR No. 92/24) has been lodged against a news channel named ‘ADM News Bharat’. The second (FIR No. 93/24) is against ‘News-4 Himalaya’.
The FIRs were lodged on the same day when the Congress-led Himachal government had issued a statement warning against the airing or publication of any false news related to Chief Minister Sukhu.
In the statement, senior Congress leader and principal adviser (media) to Chief Minister Naresh Chauhan had said that the government had decided to take strict action against the dissemination of false news targeting the Chief Minister on social media. He said that instructions had been issued to register FIRs against those responsible for spreading misleading information.
He maintained that for the past few days, there had been a concerted effort to tarnish the image of the Chief Minister through unfounded propaganda on social media.
“This is an unfortunate and deliberate conspiracy. In response, the Chief Minister’s Office has directed that FIRs be filed against the channels involved in this false propaganda. Besides this legal action would be taken to put an end to the baseless and malicious content being circulated,” he said.
