Overview

• Begusarai police filed the FIR on July 13 under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Representation of People Act, accusing Anjum of trespass, obstructing a public servant and provoking communal tensions during the Special Intensive Revision.
• Anjum denied the allegations as baseless, accused authorities of using a Muslim booth-level officer as a scapegoat and pledged to take the case to the Supreme Court.
• The Editors Guild of India and the Digipub News India Foundation condemned the FIR as an assault on independent journalism and called for its immediate withdrawal.
• The Press Club of India and Indian Women’s Press Corps warned that criminalising journalistic inquiry risks chilling coverage of electoral processes.
• The Begusarai administration defended the SIR exercise as transparent and in line with Election Commission guidelines, dismissing Anjum’s claims as misleading.