Veerendra Rajpurohit
The Rajasthan High Court has granted temporary protection from arrest to a Pali-based journalist and given him a “basic opportunity of explaining his case before the investigating authority without fear of arrest”.
Veerendra Rajpurohit (32), who runs the digital news portal News 30 Rajasthan and is associated with a few vernacular newspapers, was booked in a defamation case after he raised questions over the death of a labour leader in judicial custody and allegedly used offensive language against local police.
Rajpurohit had sought quashing of the FIR and his counsel, Rajak Haider, appearing via video call before the court, had said the petitioner wants to submit a representation along with all the relevant documents before the concerned investigating authority to redress the issue.
The court did not quash the FIR but said that “it would be appropriate to grant protection from arrest to the petitioner as it will be a waste of energy and resources of the police department to run after the accused to complete the related investigation…”
The court, however, said Friday that the investigating officer “shall have the liberty of custodial interrogation after giving 15 days’ notice before arrest if required”.
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