Ahmedabad: A special court in Ahmedabad granted regular bail to two journalists — Abeda Shaikh and Sabir Shaikh — against whom the police had invoked the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Act (GujCTOC), alleging that they were part of an organised crime syndicate involved in extortion.Both journalists were initially booked by the Shahpur police on charges of criminal intimidation and extortion. They were operating channels named ‘The Power of Truth’ and ‘GJ01 Samachar’. The police alleged that they demanded Rs 2 lakh from a real estate developer in exchange for deleting videos related to his plotting scheme.The journalists’ advocate, Nitish Nair, sought the benefit of parity, pointing out that two co-accused in the case had already been granted bail by the high court.Principal district Judge K M Sojitra granted conditional bail to the duo. The court directed them to file an undertaking stating that they would not “publish/upload/circulate/broadcast any video/news/report/post/digital contents relating to the subject matter of the FIR during the pendency of the proceedings.”
