Mr. Punia was presented before a magistrate at the Tihar judicial complex this morning
New Delhi:
Two journalists covering farmers’ protests in Singhu (on the Delhi-Haryana border) were arrested on Saturday night for allegedly misbehaving with police personnel stationed there.
The journalists have been identified as Mandeep Punia and Dharmendra Singh, who was released after signing a pledge. Mr. Punia was detained overnight at the Samaypur Badli Police Station.
Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist who contributes to Caravan magazine, was presented this morning before a magistrate at the Tihar Court Complex, after being accused in multiple sections of the IPC, including those related to the use of criminal force on a server public.
The arrest of the journalists, which comes a day after the police in the national capital brought another case against journalist Rajdeep Sardesai, congressional MP Shashi Tharoor and others, for their comments on the violence of the Day’s tractor rally of the Republic, has provoked a furious protest.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was among those who spoke; the Lok Sabha deputy tweeted a video that apparently showed Mr. Punia being kidnapped by a large group of policemen.
“Those who fear the truth arrest the real journalists,” Gandhi wrote in Hindi.
In an FIR (first information report) released in Delhi on Saturday, police said Tharoor and the others misled people by the death of a protester in the ITO area. Other journalists named in that FIR are Mrinal Pande, Paresh Nath, Anant Nath and Vinod K Jose.
“… they published false, misleading and incorrect information about the unfortunate death of the tractor driver in an accident to instigate violence among the protesters,” police said Saturday.
“Everyone tried to imply that the death of the farmer was caused by violence committed by the Delhi Police under the instructions of the central government … Such insensitive statements are detrimental to national integration in this delicate situation. Such messages are transmitted variously sometimes provoking a false narrative and causing the public to be misinformed ”, added the police statement.
Other FIRs filed against them include one in Uttar Pradesh’s Noida and four in Madhya Pradesh.
The Publishers Guild of India has condemned cases against journalists covering the farmers’ protest.
“Journalists have been specifically targeted for reporting accounts related to the death of one of the protesters on their personal social media, as well as those of the publications they run and represent,” the Publishers Guild statement said.
Journalists also gathered at the India Press Club in Delhi on Saturday to protest against the FIRs.
“Today the environment is such, it is so poisonous, so toxic … Even during the Emergency, the rules against journalists were not so harsh, I don’t remember anyone who has launched into sedition”, Anand Sahay, Club director Press Office of India said, according to a report by the PTI news agency.
Thousands of farmers across India have spent the past few weeks demanding that the center repeal laws they say will leave them at the mercy of big corporate companies.
The tense situation erupted on Republic Day when groups of farmers and others clashed with police during a tractor rally that turned violent. The police had to resort to firing tear gas and lathi charges to control the situation. A farmer was killed and hundreds of policemen were injured.
The farmers have alleged a conspiracy to derail their, thus far, largely peaceful protests, and have blamed Punjabi actor Deep Sidhu for leading that conspiracy. Sidhu was named in one case, law enforcement sources told NDTV this week, as were some farmer leaders.
So far, the police have filed 38 cases and arrested 84 people in connection with the clashes, the ANI news agency reported.
With contributions from ANI, PTI
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