Journalist and YouTuber Abhisar Sharma on Thursday described as “completely baseless” the first information report against him for accusing Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of engaging in communal politics.

“It will be responded to legally,” Sharma said in a social media post. “I had…highlighted Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s communal politics with facts – based on his own statements.”

Sharma was booked earlier in the day under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to acts endangering national unity and sovereignty, promoting enmity between groups and making assertions prejudicial to national integration.

The case was filed based on a complaint by Alok Baruah, a member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Baruah alleged that Sharma ridiculed and denigrated the Union government and the Assam government, and thus endangered national sovereignty. He claimed that the journalist “ridiculed the principle of Ram Rajya [or the reign of the Hindu deity Ram], and openly accused the chief minister of Assam of communal politics”.

A senior Guwahati Police officer told Scroll that the case was filed as Sharma “was speaking against the country and its sovereignty”.

Press body condemns case

Digipub News India Foundation, an association of independent digital news organisations and journalists, condemned the FIR against Sharma, alleging that the police “are increasingly being weaponised to silence dissent”.

“To criminalise the work of a respected journalist like Abhisar Sharma is nothing less than an attack on press freedom,” stated the press body.

It demanded that the case be immediately dismissed and that “the intimidation of journalists brought to an end”.

“We also call upon the government and judiciary to ensure that repressive laws such as sedition are not misused,” Digipub added. “Press freedom is the foundation of a democracy, and we are committed to defending it at all costs.”

Assam CM a ‘coward’: Congress

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate called the Assam chief minister a “coward” after the case against Sharma.

“Assam government’s FIRs against three senior journalists – Siddharth Varadarajan, Karan Thapar and Abhisar Sharma is nothing but a futile attempt to intimidate and silence them,” she said in a social media post.

Rashtriya Janata Dal spokesperson Priyanka Bharti said: “We all stand in unflinching solidarity with you, Abhisar Sharma”.

She asked why the government was “so rattled by the truth” and claimed that charges of sedition were being misused in the country.

The case registered against Sharma came days after the Crime Branch in Guwahati on August 12 issued a summons to The Wire’s founding editor Siddharth Varadarajan in an FIR pertaining to an article on Operation Sindoor.

The summons came even as the Supreme Court, on the same day, had granted Varadarajan and members of the foundation running the news outlet protection from arrest in another FIR filed by the Assam Police.

The Wire also received summons for journalist Karan Thapar on Monday, said the news outlet.