‘No claim objectionable’
The second YouTuber is Rajeev Kumar, who lives in Dhanaura village and runs the Pratham TV News India YouTube channel with nearly 7,000 subscribers, and has been named in two notices on March 28 and April 5.
While the notice on March 28 accused Kumar of tarnishing the image of INDIA bloc candidate Danish Ali, the one on April 5 said he had uploaded a video in favour of BSP candidate Chaudhary Mujahid Hussain.
The notices mention the thumbnail text of the videos. “Stormy tours mark BSP candidate Dr Chaudhary Mujahid Hussain’s campaign” and another that mentioned that the BSP candidate got “blessings from Muslim elders”. The one linked to Danish Ali’s video claimed the thumbnail said he had “cheated Muslims and Dalits”.
However, Kumar said there was nothing objectionable about the videos and that he is now scared. “We are not covering the elections because of fear of the administration filing cases against us.”
Dhanaura police circle officer Shwetabh Bhaskar said the police are yet to act on the notices since “they lack clarity”. A decision will be taken only after investigation, he said.
‘Pro-Mayawati slogans’
On April 5, two other notices were issued to Ashekeen Qureshi and Istekhar from Hassanpur.
Qureshi, who runs the JPN7 News YouTube channel with nearly 11,000 subscribers, has been accused of maligning the reputation of candidates. When Newslaundry reached out to him for comment, he refused to comment saying he was not aware of any such notice.
Istekhar, who is a reporter with Munsif TV, is accused of misleading voters through a WhatsApp post on the ‘Munsif TV Amroha’ WhatsApp channel on March 3. The notice alleged that the post mentioned slogans in favour of BSP chief Mayawati.
However, Istekhar claims that he is just the admin of the WhatsApp group where the message was posted. “I will see about it after the elections are over.”
Hassanpur police circle officer Deep Kumar Pant said an FIR will only be lodged after a preliminary probe.
The Amroha SP could not be reached for comment.
This report was first published in Hindi. It was translated by Anupam Tiwari.