The Uttar Pradesh Police on Tuesday arrested freelance journalist Prashant Kanojia from his residence in Delhi over tweets allegedly posted by him. This is, reportedly, the third time Kanojia has been booked over social media posts.
According to some reports, Kanojia was arrested for allegedly morphing a poster of the Hindu Army outfit and its leader Sushil Tiwari.
Kanojia has written for the Hindi version of The Wire. The Wire quoted Kanojia's wife, Jagisha Arora, as saying, he was arrested following "orders from above". “The UP police came to our house half an hour [before the arrest]. Almost all of them were wearing civil clothes, only one cop was in police uniform. They arrested Prashant and said, ‘Tweet ka maamla hai.’ When I asked them which tweet are they talking about, they said, ‘Bohot tweet kiye hain tumney, upar sey orders aaye hain humein, follow toh karna padega’," Kanojia's wife told The Wire.
Kanojia could be taken to Lucknow after obtaining transit remand.
In 2019, Kanojia was arrested over social media posts about a woman who purportedly wanted to marry Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. He was released on the orders of the Supreme Court.
Reacting to the latest arrest of Kanojia, Bhim Army chief Chandrashekar Azad tweeted the arrest was testimony to the "dictatorial attitude of Uttar Pradesh government". He alleged the government was disturbed by people writing, reading and speaking and compared the situation to the Emergency.