Ghaziabad police swoops in to take custody of Rohit Ranjan, meddles with Chhattisgarh Police’s work

Drama unfolded in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad this morning when the Chhattisgarh police landed there at 5:30 am to arrest Zee TV news anchor Rohit Ranjan for broadcasting a “misleading Rahul Gandhi video”, reported NDTV, but the Ghaziabad police “stepped in to take him away”.

Ranjan is now in UP Police’s custody, “facing relatively lighter charges”, said NDTV.

Earlier this morning, Ranjan had taken to Twitter, asking UP CM Yogi Adityanath and the Ghaziabad police for help. He wrote, “Chhattisgarh Police is standing outside my house to arrest me without informing the local police, is it legal”. However, the Chhattisgarh police was quick to reply, stating, “There is no such rule to inform. Still, now they are informed. Police team has shown you court’s warrant of arrest. You should in fact cooperate, join in investigation and put your defence in court.”

This happened days after Ranjan had broadcasted a video of Rahul Gandhi on his channel, where he was heard saying, “The children who did this have acted in an irresponsible way. They are kids, forgive them.” While Rahul said this in the context of an attack on his office in Wayanad, Zee TV ran the video saying Rahul was sympathising with the killers of the Udaipur murder case.

Though Ranjan had apologised, cases were filed against him in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, and also against BJP leader Rajyavardhan Rathore who shared the video.

In light of what happened, Rahul Gandhi tweeted without clearly referring to the incident, “The whole country knows the history of the BJP-RSS; they are pushing the country into the fire of hatred . No matter how much these traitors try to break the country, the Congress will continue to do more to unite India.”