SC protects TV anchor against coercive action over defamatory comments

The top court also granted liberty to one of the complainants, represented through lawyer Rizwan Merchant, to file the link of original broadcast within one week from today

In a relief to TV news anchor Amish Devgan, the Supreme Court Friday protected him from any coercive action in pending and future FIRs which may be lodged over his alleged defamatory comment against Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in a show telecast on June 15.

Presently, five FIRs have been lodged against Devgan in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Telangana for using a derogatory term for the Sufi saint in the news debate show called Aar Paar' on his channel.

However, he later tweeted an apology saying that he was actually referring to Alauddin Khilji and inadvertently ended up naming Chisti.