Punjab police book YouTube channel for ‘equating Raghav Chadha with Vijay Mallya’, defaming AAP

The complaint stated that the YouTube channel was running “misleading and scandalous content” against AAP MP Raghav Chadha, who is currently in England.

The complaint accused the channel of defaming Chadha by “equating him with Mallya” and of calling “Chadha a Khalistani supporter after he met UK MP Preet Gill”. (Express photo)

The Punjab police have registered an FIR against a YouTube channel for allegedly equating AAP Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha with fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya, running misleading content on the Delhi liquor scam and claiming that the AAP had sold poll tickets.

The FIR has been registered at the Shimlapuri police station of Ludhiana against the YouTube channel called Capital TV on a complaint lodged by Vikas Prashar, son of Ashok Pappi Prashar, the AAP candidate for the Ludhiana Lok Sabha seat. Vikas is also an AAP worker, as per the FIR.

Vikas said in his complaint that the YouTube channel was running “misleading and scandalous content” against AAP MP Raghav Chadha, who is currently in England. It accused the channel of defaming Chadha by “equating him with Mallya” and of calling “Chadha a Khalistani supporter after he met UK MP Preet Gill”. The channel has also been accused of spreading “fake news on drug-peddling in Punjab”, among other things.

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The FIR has been registered under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on basis of religion), 469 (forgery) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 of the Information Technology Act.

“The statements/contents of false videos on Capital TV channel and others shall harm the public peace and harmony…and is likely to promote enmity between different groups in the country on grounds of religion, caste, race and community…..,” stated the complaint.

DCP Jaskiranjit Singh Teja said, “The FIR has been registered on the basis of the complaint. A probe has been initiated.”

A copy of the FIR is with The Indian Express.

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The FIR states that some of the “objectionable” videos being run on the YouTube channel claim that “Vijay Malya fled away to UK after taking the money of public and in similar manner Rajya Sabha member fled away to England on the pretext of his eye treatment after throwing the youth of Punjab in ‘chitta addiction’, AAP distributed MP tickets after taking money from candidates, AAP’s Rajya Sabha member met Preet Gill MP from UK, who helps Khalistani movement and the RS member is collecting money on the pretext of the same, fake news regarding drug selling in Punjab, fake and misleading content on liquor scam, among others”.

The complainant added that “such videos are disturbing the public peace and harmony and need to be deleted immediately”.

In February, the Punjab police arrested YouTuber Rachit Kaushik from Uttar Pradesh on charges of hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity on the basis of religion. However, he claimed that he was targeted for “exposing Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP government in Punjab”.

Divya Goyal

Divya Goyal is a Principal Correspondent with The Indian Express, based in Punjab. Her interest lies in exploring both news and feature stories, with an effort to reflect human interest at the heart of each piece. She writes on gender issues, education, politics, Sikh diaspora, heritage, the Partition among other subjects. She has also extensively covered issues of minority communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan. She also explores the legacy of India's partition and distinct stories from both West and East Punjab. She is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), Delhi, the most revered government institute for media studies in India, from where she pursued English Journalism (Print). Her research work on “Role of micro-blogging platform Twitter in content generation in newspapers” had won accolades at IIMC. She had started her career in print journalism with Hindustan Times before switching to The Indian Express in 2012. Her investigative report in 2019 on gender disparity while treating women drug addicts in Punjab won her the Laadli Media Award for Gender Sensitivity in 2020. She won another Laadli for her ground report on the struggle of two girls who ride a boat to reach their school in the border village of Punjab. ... Read More

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