Overview

• The Guwahati Crime Branch registered an FIR on August 21 against journalist Abhisar Sharma under BNS Sections 152, 196 and 197 after a complaint by Alok Baruah alleging a YouTube video accused the chief minister of communal politics and mocked the idea of Ram Rajya.
• Sharma called the case completely baseless, said he will fight it legally, and cited his video’s references to a judge’s remarks on a 3,000 bigha land allotment to Mahabal Cement and to the chief minister’s public statements.
• The Supreme Court on August 22 granted interim protection from arrest to The Wire’s Siddharth Varadarajan and Karan Thapar in a separate Assam FIR under Section 152, directing them to cooperate with the probe and listing the matter for September 15.
• Press bodies including the Press Club of India, Editors Guild of India and DIGIPUB condemned the FIRs against journalists and urged withdrawal of the cases and restraint in using Section 152 against media work.
• An earlier Guwahati FIR tied to post-Pahalgam coverage also named the late Satya Pal Malik and Pakistani journalist Najam Sethi, while reporting has highlighted complainants’ ABVP or BJP links and procedural concerns such as limited access to FIR copies.