New Delhi: The Allahabad high court on Friday rejected a plea by the secretary of the Gareeb Nawaz Mosque, demolished by Barabanki authorities in May, and another person to quash the first information report (FIR) registered against them by the Uttar Pradesh police for speaking to The Wire for a video news report.According to Bar and Bench, a division bench of Justices Ramesh Singh and Narendra Kumar Johari said Mohammad Anees, the secretary, and Mohd. Naeem, a resident of Barabanki, can seek anticipatory bail in the matter but said the court cannot quash the proceedings at this stage.The FIR, based on a complaint by a police officer, was filed on June 24 and also included The Wire and two of its journalists. The video report in question shows local residents describing events leading up to and following what they said was the illegal demolition of the mosque in Ram Snehi Ghat, Barabanki.The UP police claimed that tweets about the video posted by The Wire on Twitter spread ‘animosity in society’ and ‘disturb communal harmony’. This was the fourth FIR registered by UP police against The Wire in 14 months.During the hearing on Friday, the counsel for the petitioners submitted that all the charges under sedition and other connected charges are “unsustainable”, according to Bar and Bench. He also submitted that the FIR filed was baseless.“He submits that the petitioner has only placed his case, which was in the aforesaid writ petition before the ‘Wire’ Newspaper and immediately thereafter, the impugned FIR has been lodged against him,” the court’s order notes.The plea had claimed that the allegations in the FIR are baseless and that the life of the petitioners is under threat because the police can arrest them anytime. The FIR also violates the constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed, it said.According to Bar and Bench, the plea relied was place on the Supreme Court’s decision in Romesh Thappar vs State of Madras, in which it was held that freedom speech includes the freedom to propagate ideas.