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Dainik Jagran Online Editor Arrested For Publishing Uttar Pradesh Exit Polls

He was released on bail.
Screenshot from Dainik Jagran

After the Election Commission (EC) ordered criminal cases against him, reports said that the online editor of Dainik Jagran was arrested on Tuesday by the Ghaziabad police from his home.

The Telegraph reported that Shekhar Tripathi was produced before the Ghaziabad district magistrate after which he was released on bail.

This was a fallout of the online edition of the newspaper publishing exit polls after the first phase of Uttar Pradesh elections, despite EC rules stipulating that exit polls not be published until all phases of any elections are over. This year exit polls were not supposed to be published or telecast from February 4, 2017 at 7 am to March 8, 2017 at 5:30 pm.

The PTI reported that the EC took serious note of this breach of rules and wrote a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Uttar Pradesh. The letter told the CEO that the "offence under Section 126A is punishable by imprisonment for a term upto 2 years or with fine or both."

The Indian Express quoted DSP, Ghaziabad Manish Kumar Mishra as saying, "An FIR under IPC section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 126A and 126B of the Representation of People Act, 1951 was registered at Kavi Nagar police station on Monday night. The FIR was registered against the editor-in-chief and managing editor of Dainik Jagran as well as the management of RDI (the firm that allegedly conducted the exit poll) after a complaint from the district administration office."

According to the PTI, the EC directed district election officers of all the 15 districts that went to poll during the first phase of elections in UP on February 11 to file FIRs against the managing director " and/or such other authorities of RDI and Dainik Jagran including the Managing Editor/Editor in Chief/Editor/Chief Editor of the newspaper under Section 188 of IPC read with Section 126A and 126B of RP Act, 1951."

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.