TV anchor Rajdeep Sardesai taken off air for two weeks: Reports

New Delhi, Jan 28: Rajdeep Sardesai, senior news anchor and consulting editor of India Today, has been taken off the air for two weeks for repeated violation of social media guidelines laid down by the group, suggests reports.

According to reports, Sardesai on January 26, had tweeted, "One person, 45-year-old Navneet, was killed allegedly in police firing at ITO. Farmers tell me: the 'sacrifice' will not go in vain," on January 26. The tweets were later deleted by him.

So far, Sardesai has not commented on the issue.

However, the Delhi Police was quick to issue a rebuttal and released a video showing the farmer overspeeding the tractor, running it over the barricades and the tractor finally turning turtle. The farmers draped the body in the tricolour and kept it at the ITO crossing, not allowing the police to send it for post-mortem. The farmers also lashed out at the mediapersons covering the incident.

Sardesai tweeted the video, adding that the police showed "great restraint" with "no evidence of bullets fired".

Protesting farmers clashed with police at several places in the national capital and entered the iconic Red Fort and ITO in the heart of the city on Tuesday after hundreds of them deviated from pre-decided routes, prompting security personnel to resort to lathicharge and tear gas.

Chaotic scenes were witnessed at ITO, where hundreds of protesters could be seen chasing police personnel with sticks and ramming their tractors into the buses parked by police.

The Delhi Police claimed that more than 300 police personnel were injured following the incident. The police later booked at least 37 farmer leaders in an FIR in connection with the violence during the tractor parade, as two farmers' unions reportedly withdrew from the agitation because of the events that unfolded on Republic Day.