‘Behaving foolishly’: Rahul Gandhi slams Adityanath over arrests of journalists

New Delhi, June 11: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday slammed Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath over the arrest of journalists for sharing and broadcasting alleged derogatory comments against the CM.

Taking to twitter, Rahul wrote: "If every journalist who files a false report or peddles fake, vicious RSS/BJP sponsored propaganda about me is put in jail, most newspapers/ news channels would face a severe staff shortage. The UP CM is behaving foolishly & needs to release the arrested journalists."

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ordered immediate release of Prashant Kanojia, on a plea filed by his wife.

Journalist Prashant Kanojia was arrested on Saturday for sharing an objectionable post against the Uttar Pradesh chief minister on social media. Kanojia had shared a video on Twitter and Facebook where a woman is seen speaking to media outside the CM's office claiming she had sent a marriage proposal to Yogi Adityanath. The news channel had broadcast a video during a debate on the same issue.

Earlier, Ishika Singh, head of a Noida-based news channel, and Anuj Shukla, one of the editors of the channel, were arrested for allegedly making "objectionable comments" and "propagating defamatory content" against Adityanath.

Several media organisations and politicians have also expressed their strong condemnation over the police action against the media persons.