New Delhi: The Supreme Court granted Interium protection from arrest to noted journalist Vinod Dua in a special hearing on Sunday. But the SC allowed Himachal Pradesh police to conduct a probe and interrogate him on an FIR lodged for allegedly mis-reporting the communal violence in the city in February and spreading fake news through his you tube show.

A bench of justices U U Lalit, M M Shantana Goudar and Vineeth Sharan said the police could quiz him at his residence only after giving him 24 hours notice. The Supreme Court asked the police to file a status report on the next date of hearing. The Delhi High Court, in an Interium order, had stayed probe in another case lodged in the Delhi against Dua by a BJP member and the tribal court had directed that no coercive steps be taken against him.

However he was summoned by Himachal Pradesh police on a separate complaint lodged in Shimla.