Maharashtra journalist booked over X post criticising Advani’s Bharat Ratna

The Pune police lodged an FIR today against journalist Nikhil Wagle over a “defamatory” social media post that criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leader LK Advani over the latter being awarded the Bharat Ratna.

The FIR was registered at Vishrambag police station on the complaint of BJP leader Sunil Deodhar. Wagle was booked under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 500 (punishment for defamation) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code.

As per the FIR, Wagle had posted the “defamatory comment” on X on February 4. His post, written in Marathi, said the award was “from one rioter to another”. 

Two days later, he tweeted again saying he stood by his post “even if I am jailed”. “This is an undeclared emergency,” he said.

The journalist is scheduled to speak at a ‘Nirbhay Bano’ public gathering in Pune on Friday evening. The BJP Pune unit has sought the cancellation of the event in a letter to the city police and has also threatened to disrupt the programme.

This is not the first time Wagle has run into controversy. Newslaundry last month reported about the tiff between Wagle and the Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, as the journalist slammed VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar over his politics. What was the controversy about? Read here.

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