Delhi Court Orders FIR Against Abhijit Iyer-Mitra Over Remarks Against Newslaundry's Manisha Pande, Others
New Delhi: Delhi's Saket district court on Wednesday (April 23) ordered the registration of a first information report (FIR) against Abhijit Iyer-Mitra for making objectionable social media posts against Newslaundry's Manisha Pande and other journalists, Bar and Bench reported.
Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Bhanu Pratap Singh of the Saket court passed the order saying Iyer-Mitra made sexually coloured remarks against Pande and others, prima facie intended to insult Pande as she has been named in the post.
The case related to a plea filed by Manisha Pande and six other journalists against Iyer-Mitra who allegedly repeatedly referred to them as prostitutes in a series of posts and articles on X.
In several tweets, they argued, Iyer-Mitra wrote that “door gaon mein Newslaundry naam ki basti thi jahan r****** sasti thi (In a faraway village, there was a settlement called Newslaundry where prostitutes were cheap)".
In another tweet, he allegedly made more objectionable remarks about Pande.
The order, as quoted by Bar and Bench, read: “On perusal of the application and the material placed on record by the complainant, this Court is of the view that the content of the tweets posted by the accused on ‘X’ platform discloses commission of cognizable offences under section 75(3) and 79 of BNS.”
It added that police investigation is necessary to verify the offence committed in cyber space on platform X, to verify the user account from which the said tweets were published. “Further police investigation is also necessary to trace and recover the computer source/electronic device from which the said tweets were published,” it added.
The court also said that the Action Taken Report which was filed by PSI Ombir “is not satisfactory as the above stated tweets were not considered in the report."
The Newslaundry journalists had also approached the Delhi high court with a defamation suit against Iyer-Mitra for his posts arguing that the remarks amount to a sustained campaign of vilification, causing enormous mental trauma, harassment and embarrassment.
They sought a permanent injunction, a written apology from Iyer-Mitra and damages up to Rs 2 crore.
The high court has criticised the remarks saying his “choice of words” are “impermissible in (a) civilised society.” On May 21, 2025, the court also recorded his undertaking to delete the posts.
The suit is still pending before the high court.
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