Aakar Patel

Journalist

Karnataka and Gujarat

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on July 9, 2020 regarding fabricated cases against Mr. Aakar Patel in Karnataka and Gujarat for his tweets and the restriction of his Twitter account. Mr. Patel is a senior journalist, writer and columnist and former Executive Director of Amnesty International India. He also translated the writings of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi from Gujarati to English.

On June 2, 2020, Mr. Nagaraja DR, an inspector from Bengaluru police, filed an FIR against Mr. Patel at the JC Nagar Police Station for his tweet calling for US like protests in India against atrocities committed on Dalits, women, Muslims, and Adivasis .The FIR was registered under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 117 (abetting commission of offence by the public or by more than ten persons) and 505 (1) B (statements with intent to cause mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). 

On July 2, 2020, another FIR was registered against Mr. Patel by Mr. Purnesh Shwarbhai Modi, a sitting MLA from Gujarat, under IPC Sections 153 A, 295A, 505(1)b, 5051c, 499 and 500 of the IPC. The charges included inciting communal violence through this tweets, bringing defamatory charges on the public persona of the Prime Minister and the Hindu-Ghanchi community.

 Though no further action was initiated on the FIRs, the government instructed Twitter to withhold his account.