The Guwahati Crime Branch has issued summons to The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan and senior journalist Karan Thapar in an FIR citing Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita among other charges. This came on the same day the Supreme Court shielded Varadarajan from coercive action in a separate FIR filed in Morigaon under the same section.

The Morigaon case had come after an article about Operation Sindoor titled “‘IAF lost fighter jets to Pak because of political leadership’s constraints’: Indian defence attache”. It was lodged under BNS Section 152, which pertains to acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India. The fresh summons on August 12 cited the same charges, in addition to the BNS sections pertaining to promoting enmity between different groups, publishing false or misleading information and criminal conspiracy.

However, The Wire said the Guwahati crime branch has not shared details of the new FIR.

A report on the news outlet referring to the summons on Monday said that “the FIR date was not mentioned, no details of the alleged offence were provided and a copy of the FIR was not included – as the police are legally obliged to do while serving a summons under this section of the BNSS”.

Ankur Jain, the joint commissioner of police in Guwahati, earlier told Scroll that the summons had been issued as the Supreme Court order had come in relation to a case filed in “some other district”. Varadarajan and Thapar have been ordered to appear at the Crime Branch office in Panbazaar, Guwahati, on Friday.

According to The Wire, even in the Morigaon case, The Wire’s counsel Nitya Ramakrishnan told the Supreme Court that the FIR was kept under wraps; details of the complaint, FIR date, and invoked sections were pieced together only through sources. “It was on this basis that The Wire approached the court to challenge the vires of Section 152 of BNS and the bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi issued notice.”

Section 152 of BNS (‘Acts endangering sovereignty, unity and integrity of India’) is seen as a rebranded version of India’s earlier sedition provision that the apex court stayed in 2022.

“The Wire’s legal representatives in Guwahati say there is no trace of the FIR in the magistrate’s court. Reporters in Assam have also failed to get the police in Guwahati to provide any details about the new case,” read the report on the news portal.

In their response to the summons, both Varadarajan and Thapar have said they are ready and willing to cooperate with any investigation, but the preconditions laid down by India’s constitutional courts have to be fulfilled in any case. Please note, their reply says, that they “cannot be conceivably summoned and expected to answer questions on a matter, to ascertain the “facts and circumstances in relation to the present investigation”, without being supplied with the contents of the FIR to which your investigation pertains”.

Meanwhile, a statement by the Press Club of India demanded the withdrawal of the cases against the outlet as well as Section 152.

“It is noteworthy that the summons were issued on August 12, 2025, even as the Supreme Court bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi had granted Varadarajan and all journalists at The Wire protection from any coercive action in an FIR (0181/2025) filed by the Assam Police in Morigaon on July 11, 2025 under Section 152 and other provisions of the BNS,” read the statement.

“Now, the Assam Police have filed another FIR without mentioning any reason and have asked Varadarajan and Thapar to appear before the investigating officer at the Crime Branch in Guwahati on August 22 - on pain of arrest in the event of non-compliance.”

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