oppn parties UP Police: Acting Without Legal Basis To Arrest Journalists

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October 17, 2026

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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UP Police: Acting Without Legal Basis To Arrest Journalists

By Sunil Garodia

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

Police forces all over the country have become extra sensitive to anything allegedly defamatory being posted on social media about their political masters. In trying to please their masters, police forces are arbitrarily arresting people for either posting or forwarding posts on social media. But in doing so, they are breaking more laws than they are upholding.

The arrest of journalist Prashant Kanojia by UP police is a textbook case of what the police should not do when dealing with social media posts that are not liked by their political masters. Kanojia had posted the claim by a woman that she had proposed to UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath on his Twitter account. The UP police arrested Kanojia from Delhi and brought him to Lucknow. 

The whole episode proves that the law was misused and the police even acted illegally. First of all, there was no clarity on the charges slapped on Kanojia. Section 66 of the IT Act (which punishes a person for damaging computer systems and was clearly not applicable in this case) and Section 499 of the IPC (relating to defamation, which incidentally is a non-cognizable and bailable offence) were initially slapped on Kanojia. Why and how did the jurisdictional magistrate grant the warrant for arrest without solid reasons?

Then, in a blatantly illegal act, the UP police brought Kanojia from Delhi to Lucknow without a transit remand from the Delhi magistrate from whose jurisdiction the journalist was arrested. In order to please their political masters, the UP police forgot the due process and mandatory procedures. The police later added Section 505 of the IPC (intending to cause public mischief) and Section 67 of the IT Act (sharing obscene material), perhaps to avoid criticism. But it is debatable whether publishing a woman’s claim of proposing to the chief minister was either obscene or likely to cause public mischief.

That the UP police acted arbitrarily and in haste without any basis of law was proved when the Supreme Court granted bail to Kanojia, without obviously endorsing his tweets. The tweets were not the subject matter before the apex court, the arrest was. The court was of the view that there was no immediate need to arrest the journalist for the tweets. It came down heavily on the practice of abridging personal liberty of citizens on flimsy charges. It ordered the UP government to release Kanojia immediately and observed that the fundamental right to liberty was non-negotiable. The episode shows that there is a need to punish officers who carry out illegal instructions from their political masters. There is also a need to have a refresher course for the lower judiciary on the correct application of the law in cases involving social and other digital media.

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