New Delhi: A controversy around freedom of expression is beginning to cloud Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s high-stakes visit to Canada even before it happens.
“I will not tolerate a foreign police state like India threatening my journalists. We will fight for the truth and won’t be silenced by them,” said Keean Bexte, founder of independent news organisation Juno News, after several posts linked to it featured in a First Information Report (FIR) registered at Mohali, Punjab, on 13 October. Taking to social media platform X Saturday, Bexte also addressed Canadian Prime Minister Mark J. Carney, saying he “must condemn India for this behavior”.
Bexte was reacting to the Punjab Police FIR against social media influencers and journalists, including those based in Canada, over posts linking a Chandigarh-based conglomerate to alleged student grant fraud in Canada. This probe comes ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Canada in December, as India-Canada ties seek to move past a deep freeze under former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The case at hand
The FIR has been filed on a complaint by real estate firm GB Realty—a company of the Gurinder Bhatti-run Optas Group—that alleges the posts made by individuals on social media platforms have brought the firm into disrepute and were intended to damage its real estate projects in Mohali. The FIR has been filed under Section 356(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023 (BNS), which deals with offences amounting to criminal defamation, and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act 2000, which deals with computer-related fraudulent acts.
Although the FIR has been filed against unknown accused, GB Realty’s counsel Paras Sharma submitted a list of 109 social media posts by influencers and journalists allegedly defaming his client. In the police complaint, Sharma alleged that his client firm is in the process of introducing “Punjab’s first branded residences” on Mohali’s Airport Road and in New Chandigarh after acquiring land from the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA).
He claimed that the social media posts by influencers and journalists linking the firm and its managing director Gurinder Bhatti to the alleged fraud are undermining the trust of investors, buyers, banks, and business partners vital for their business interests.
“Having acquired land from GMADA, we are introducing Punjab’s first branded residences, located on Airport Road, Mohali, and in New Chandigarh. Recently, some unidentified individuals intent on tarnishing our group’s reputation have spread false rumours on social media about our company and its managing director, based on incorrect facts,” Sharma alleged in the complaint, which is the basis of the FIR.
“Specifically, they (influencers and journalists) have attempted to link our company’s name to a fraud case in Canada. This allegation is entirely false and baseless. This content is being disseminated against us via posts, videos and comments on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and others,” Sharma alleged in the FIR.
The FIR features several weblinks published on Facebook, Instagram and X, many from journalists and social media influencers. A few links are also associated with Juno News, an independent news organisation.
A ‘scam’ investigated
A statement from Juno News said they were “investigating student recruitment, alleged student scams, and the pipeline of human beings from Punjab to Canada”.
Reacting to the FIR, Juno News said, “Now police in India are trying to get our journalism taken down.” The Juno News statement said that X had notified their “reporter Melanie Bennet that Punjab’s Cyber Crime Police requested the removal of two of her posts, alleging they violate Indian law”.
On 8 October, Bennet had posted her news report on X, stating: “Gurinder Bhatti, the businessman at the head of the Academy of Learning network facing a criminal investigation also runs a study abroad consultancy in Punjab, placing his business interests both sides of an industry that promises students a better future in Canada.”
The Juno News statement said, “A foreign police force is reaching into the work of a Canadian newsroom. We take that threat seriously. Melanie Bennet and Harrison Faulkner have been investigating allegations involving student recruitment, Ontario’s student assistance system, and the businesses connecting India and Canada. We were planning to send them to India to follow the evidence. The police request raises serious questions about the risks they could face while doing that work.”
Keean Bexte, founder of Juno News, then took to X. Juno News contributor, Harrison Faulkner, whose profile also features in the URLs attached in Punjab Police’s FIR, said, “My X profile and several of my posts were listed in a Punjab Police Cyber Crime Unit takedown order sent to X. Make no mistake about it. This is a foreign police force reaching into the work of a Canadian newsroom.”
Several other journalists have also backed Juno News. Danial Bordman of The National Telegram, for instance, posted on X, saying: “Keean and Juno News are 100% in the right on this one.
“There is a MASSIVE fraud network being run out of Punjab and the police force is likely taking a cut. This is a serious enough violation of international norms around journalism and free speech that Mark J Carney and Narendra Modi need to condemn what the Punjabi police have done so.”
While the investigation and expose has been published across Canadian media, many like Kanwar Sierah, a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant from Canada, have also been sharing posts regarding what was unfolding in the OSAP scam. Posting on social media, Sierah said, “False Police case registered against 35 Canadian citizens (including Canadian journalists) by corrupt Indian Police Punjab Police for reporting on OSAP scam and its perpetrators.”
Sierah said that while Canadian Police Ontario Provincial Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Border Service NOR “fails to make charges in this MASSIVE FRAUD and initiate actions against the alleged culprit owners of the Academy of Learning locations involved, Indian Police Authorities are already suppressing the Canadian Voices”.
“This isn’t just a regular scam. It impacts many real lives, real beneficiaries, who wish to study in Canada. I, too, had shared multiple posts on X, explaining what the issue was, how it originated, and, my main purpose was to inform the people about what is going on, and to ensure they don’t scammed. I have been raising awareness to ensure no Indian is impacted like this,” he said.
Sierah sees this FIR by Punjab Police as nothing less than “intimidation.”
“Like me, there were journalists too, who had worked on the exposé unfolding in Canada. They too have been mentioned in the FIR. We can’t be silenced.”
(Edited by Nardeep Singh Dahiya)
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