Supreme Court bars U.P. Police from taking coercive action against journalist who flagged Ram Temple misappropriations

Abhishek Upadhyay. Photo credit: X/@upadhyayabhii The Supreme Court on Tuesday (August 25, 2026) ordered the Uttar Pradesh Police to restrain from taking any coercive action against Abhishek Upadhyay, an independent journalist who flagged the alleged misapprorpiation of Ayodhya’s Ram Temple donations, in an FIR regarding a road rage case.Appearing before a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, senior advocate Pradeep Rai, appearing for Mr. Upadhyay submitted that his client had committed the “unpardonable sin of exposing the Ram Mandir donation issue”.“I do not want any other relief other than a fair investigation,” Mr. Rai submitted.The senior advocate, who is also the newly-elected Supreme Court Bar Association president, said the police had not even handed over to the journalist a copy of the FIR and CCTV footage, which would help him defend himself in a court of law.The court ordered the Ghaziabad Police Commissioner to provide Mr. Upadhyay with the copies of the FIR and CCTV footage, and file a compliance report in the Supreme Court on the next date of hearing on September 7.The court said the interim protection against police action would extend to any other FIRs filed in the interregnum against Mr. Upadhyay in order to give him “breathing space and time”.“We can protect you for the time being. Meanwhile, he can approach the jurisdictional High Court. We appreciate that you have an imminent apprehension of repetitive FIRs against you,” Chief Justice Kant said.The court said the allegation against Mr. Upadhyay was that his SUV had hit a two-wheeler, following which he had shouted caste-based abuses at the scooterist.“If this was done, it will amount to an offence. If it is a concocted story, you need breathing space and time to make out a case,” Chief Justice Kant said.In an oral mentioning on August 24, Mr. Upadhyay’s counsel submitted that his client was being accused by the police of other serious offences, including under the Scheduled Caste Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.Mr. Upadhyay claimed that the FIR was based on concocted allegations against him and was an attempt to harass him for his independent journalistic works.In the plea, he had contended that the FIR copy was not supplied to him and that the police were forcing nearby shopkeepers to delete the CCTV visuals of the relevant time. Published - August 25, 2026 12:57 pm IST