Rohit Ranjan is a well-known Indian news anchor. He hit the headlines on 5 July 2022 after he was detained by the Noida police, four days after he telecasted a deceptive video of Indian National Congress president Rahul Gandhi on his news show on Zee News Channel. Later, the organisers of the Zee News channel and Rohit Ranjan apologised for their mistake.
Wiki/Biography
Rohit Ranjan was born in Deoghar, Jharkhand, India. He attended the Modern School and Yuvashakti Model School in Delhi to complete his school education. Later, he attended the Tecnia Institute of Advanced Studies, Delhi for further studies.
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 8″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
There is not much information about his parents. He has a brother.
Rohit Ranjan with his brother
Wife & Children
Rohit Ranjan is married to Archana Singh. He has a son and a daughter. The name of his son is Rudra.
Rohit Ranjan with his wife and son
Rohit Ranjan with his family
Religion
Rohit Ranjan follows Hinduism.
Rohit Ranjan stating about his religion on one of his social media accounts
Career
According to some media sources, Rohit Ranjan pursued his studies in Journalism soon after completing his school education. In September 2010, he began working as a news anchor with the P7 News channel and served the position till May 2015.
Rohit Ranjan while telecasting a news show on Zee News Channel
Controversy
Airing Fake News Video of Rahul Gandhi
On 1 July 2022, Rohit Ranjan attracted controversy when he aired a fake news video of INC president Rahul Gandhi on his news show telecasted on Zee News Channel. Prashant Agrawal, a Senior Superintendent of Raipur Police, mentioned in a media conference that Congress MLA Devendra Yadav filed a case against Rohit Ranjan on 1 July 2022. In the FIR Devendra Yadav reported that a fake and forged news video of Rahul Gandhi was aired on the show of Zee News Channel by its anchor Rohit Ranjan. Yadav added that the video was aired with the intention to promote enmity among different groups, and it also outraged the religious feelings of the Indian citizens. In the video, the INC president Rahul Gandhi was seen forgiving the people who vandalised his Wayanad office by calling them children; however, the Zee News channel presented manipulated the video as Rahul Gandhi was urging to forgive the murderers of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal. Soon after the complaint was filed against Rohit Rajan, the two police teams from Ghaziabad and Chattisgarh reached the residence of Rohit Ranjan and started battling with each other for his custody. The local police did not intervene in the case as stated by the Ghaziabad police officer. In the meantime, Rohit Ranjan tweeted a post on his Twitter handle soon after the news went viral on several media channels. He tagged Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in his post. Ranjan wrote,
Chhattisgarh Police is standing outside my house to arrest me without informing the local police. Is it legal?”
In reaction, Raipur police tweeted,
There is no such rule to inform. Still, now they are informed. The police team has shown you the court’s warrant of arrest. You should in fact cooperate, join in the investigation and put your defence in court.”
Later, Rohit Ranjan was arrested by the Ghaziabad police from his residence, and the police announced in the media that Rohit was in the custody of Noida police. On the same day, he was granted interim bail.
Rohit Ranjan at his Ghaziabad home, when police from Chhattisgarh and UP landed there
Apology
Rohit Ranjan and the Zee News Media channel apologised on one of the social media platforms on 2 July 2022 that they erroneously telecasted the video of Rahul Gandhi on 1 July 2022out of context by linking it with the Udaipur murder case. The Udaipur murder case happened on 28 June 2022. Rohit Ranjan tweeted,
It was a human error for which our team is apologetic. We apologise for it.”
कल हमारे शो DNA में राहुल गांधी का बयान उदयपुर की घटना से जोड़ कर ग़लत संदर्भ में चल गया था, ये एक मानवीय भूल थी जिसके लिए हमारी टीम क्षमाप्रार्थी हैं, हम इसके लिए खेद जताते हैं pic.twitter.com/YGs7kfbKKi
— Rohit Ranjan (@irohitr) July 2, 2022
Facts/Trivia
- Rohit Ranjan has inked a ॐ नमः शिवाय tattoo on his right arm.
Rohit Ranjan featuring an Om Namah Shivaye tattoo on his arm
- In 2022, Rohit Ranjan started telecasting the prime-time show DNA’ of the Zee News channel after its previous anchor Sudhir Chaudhary left the organisation.
- A couple of FIRs were filed against Rohit Ranjan in Raipur by some members of the Congress party. These FIRs included 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class), 467 (forgery), 469 (forgery to harm reputation), and 504 (intentional insult).
- The other people who were accused by the complainant Congress MLA Devendra Yadav were the director and chairman of Zee News, its chief executive officer, and its news anchor Rohit Ranjan. He accused them of fanning forged and fake news against Rahul Gandhi.
- On 6 July 2022, a team of police arrived to arrest Rohit Ranjan for the second time after he got bail on 1 July 2022 after his first arrest. However, he was not found at his residence in Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram and was declared absconded by the Chhattisgarh Police. On the same day, Rohit Ranjan filed a plea in the Supreme Court of India after a number of cases were filed against him for airing fake news against INC president Rahul Gandhi.
Chhattisgarh Police and Ghaziabad police battling for the custody of Rohit Ranjan outside his residence
- Rohit Ranjan frequently posts pictures and videos on various social media platforms. Over 2k people follow his Facebook page, and he was followed by more than 48.5k people on Twitter. More than 1k people follow his Instagram account.