The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday granted interim protection from arrest to a senior journalist and his associate who were booked for allegedly levelling baseless allegations against senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Champat Rai and his brothers of grabbing land from a cow shelter in Bijnor.
Mr. Rai is the general secretary of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra, which is entrusted with the building the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.
Senior journalist Vineet Narain, his associate Rajneesh Kapur and Alka Lahoti, whose land Mr. Narain claimed was allegedly grabbed by Mr. Rai's family, were booked in the FIR at Nagina police station. The complaint was lodged by Mr. Rai's brother Sanjay Bansal. Police had said the three were charged with hurting sentiments of crores of people of a particular community, having fake documents, house trespass and forgery.
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A division bench of Justices Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Piyush Agrawal said prima facie, it appears that the impugned FIR cannot be sustained in view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court. .
The court granted them protection from arrest till July 27, the next date of hearing.
In several posts on social media in particular Facebook, Mr. Narain, who also runs an NGO, had recently alleged that Mr. Rai through his brothers had grabbed land of a gaushala worth ₹50 crore and illegally constructed a degree college on it.
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