Farmers Movement Archive

Court directs FIR against BJP spokesman for posting doctored video of Kejriwal

A Delhi court on Tuesday said a “doctored video” of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal purportedly supporting the Centres three farm laws, allegedly posted by Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Sambit Patra, could have ended up outraging protesting farmers and could have resulted in a rioting like situation across the nation. Metropolitan magistrate Rishabh Kapoor directed the police to register an FIR against Patra for the alleged offence, after a complaint was filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Atishi stating that the fabricated video was published on social media by Patra with the intent to provoke farmers, who repose strong faith in Kejriwal, to rise against the CM.In the order copy released on Wednesday, the court said the forensics report clearly reflects that the impugned video was “edited” or “altered”.It said even the action taken report (ATR) filed by the police clearly states that the video clip in question was within the category of “manipulated media”, as marked by microblogging website Twitter.Kapoor said the video was “manipulated” in such a way to give it a colour that Kejriwal was endorsing the farm laws.The court said the doctored video was circulated on social media with the intent to make the protesting farmers believe that Kejriwal was supporting the farm laws, and it could have outraged them.“The fact that the impugned video was published on the Twitter handle of proposed accused, with the caption “teeno farm bills ke laabh ginate hue... Sir jee”, prima facie proves that same was circulated on Twitter with no other intention but to cause the protesting farmers to believe that Kejriwal is supporting the farm laws, which may have perpetuated a state of outrage with the protesting farmers and may have resulted in rioting like situation across the nation,” the court said in an eight page order.“In the impugned video clip running in 18 seconds, it can be clearly seen that the above stances quoted by Kejriwal in the original video, were placed and doctored in such a way to give them a colour as if he was speaking in support of farm laws,” it further said.Kapoor noted that in the original video, which is 40 minutes 52 seconds long clip, Kejriwal was replying to the question of a journalist, by quoting the speeches given by leaders of BJP in support of farm laws.The court further said at the end of each sentence, Kejriwal was saying that the above quoted benefits of the farm laws were already in existence even prior to the promulgation of the three new laws.The judge said the police have not probed the circumstances under which the proposed accused (Patra) has published the said video clip on his Twitter handle.“Besides, the police have also not conducted any probe to find out whether the impugned video clip was already available in public domain by associating Twitter with the inquiry, so as to rule out the fabrication/ alteration of the same at the behest of proposed accused,” the court said.The matter will next be heard on February 3, 2022.

Hindustan Times

25-11-2021

Delhi