TV channel booked for inciting religious hatred in Sambhal

LUCKNOW: A news channel had been accused of stoking up communal passion in sensitive Sambhal district, about 370km away from the city. The western UP district has remained on the boil for the past fortnight after hundreds of people attacked administrative and police officials on March 29 and by holding few officers hostage. The district is trying to get back to normalcy since.
The then police superintendent and additional police superintendent were shunted out on April 5 for failing to bring the situation under control and IPS officer of 2007 batch Ravi Shankar Chabbi was posted.
Chabbi said that chairman and editor-in-chief of a news channel, Suresh Chavanke has been airing content which is aimed at vitiating communal atmosphere in Sambhal. Police have also booked Itarat Hussain Babar, who identifies himself as head of Sambhal Jama Masjid and is seen using foul language against Chavanke in videos which have gone viral and have been shared by lakhs of people over social media platforms.
With episodes titled Sambhal ko Kashmir banana ki saazish, Sambhal ka Raavan Raj, Hari Mandir ka sach Jama Masjid ka jhooth among other programme, Suresh, his team and Itarat have been booked under IPC sections 153A(1), 505(1)B and 295A which amount to promote hatred on religious grounds, committing offence against state and deliberately outraging religious feelings of a certain group. Sections under Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act have also been pressed. In Nov 2016, a former employee who worked under Chavanke had lodged a rape case against him at women police station in Noida. ADG law and order Daljeet Singh Chawdhary said that police team handling social media labs have been alerted to trace the IP addresses which have been used to share incriminating content over Facebook and WhatsApp in Sambhal lately.