‘Journalist’ Prashant Kanojia Arrested By UP Police Again, This Time For Tweeting Morphed, Defamatory Post

On 10 August, a Facebook account in the name of Sushil Tiwari posted a message that read (as translated): “Remove Islamic study from UPSC and add Vedic study.”

The post has been shared around 2,500 times. The Facebook account has around 35,000 followers. The bio states that the user’s aim is to make Bharat a “Hindu Rashtra”.

The said however was tampered with and surfaced on social media with this content (as translated): “People from OBC SC ST communities will be prohibited form entering the Ram temple”.

Among those who circulated the fake post allegedly were Twitter user Prashant Kanojia, and verified Twitter handle of All India Parisangh, a dalit organisation run by Congress spokesperson Uditraj. Both users have now deleted the post.

Kanojia’s Twitter bio describes him as a journalist, who has written for far left-wing publication The Wire and Indian Express.

Kanojia has now been booked by Lucknow police for spreading misinformation.

Based on a complaint by one Dinesh Kumar Shukla, the Hazratganj police station filed a first information report (FIR) against Kanojia on 17 August. He has been booked under IPC sections 153-A, 153-B, 420, 465, 468, 469, 500, 505(A)(b), 505(2) along with section 66 of the Information Technology Act.

The complaint says that Kanojia posted a morphed post of Sushil Tiwari that can create enmity between communities.

On 18 August, Kanojia was reportedly arrested by UP police. From his own Twitter account, Kanojia retweeted posts that said that he had indeed arrested:

Last year, Kanojia spent five days in jail for a defamatory tweet. He was booked under IPC sections 500 (defamation), 505 (public mischief) and the Information Technology Act. Though it was not clear which tweet he was booked for, this is the press note released by the UP police that time:

After his arrest last year, KG Suresh, former director of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) of which Kanojia is an alumnus, called Kanojia a “serial abuser, troll & hate monger” who was “suspended from @IIMC_India for abusing a senior faculty.