India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI—Press Club of India has strongly condemned the registration of an FIR against journalists of The Caravan under Sections 354 (outraging modesty of a woman) and 153A (promoting communal enmity) of Indian Penal Code at the Bhajanpura police station in Northeast Delhi.
The concerned journalists were reporting on the allegations against the Bhajanpura police officials and on communal tensions in Northeast Delhi in August 2020.
The journalists in question are Prabhjit Singh, Shahid Tantray and a woman journalists.
While they were on their reporting assignment, they faced a life-threatening communal attack and sexual harassment by a mob in the area. At that time, the PCI had raised the issued about the attack, demanded registration of FIR as well as a judicial probe into the incident.
A PCI statement released by its president Gautam Lahiri and general secretary Neeraj Thakur on Saturday said that instead of holding the attackers to account, the Delhi police not only delayed the registration of FIR but also went ahead with initiating an investigation against the journalists.
“The details of the FIR against the journalists are completely counter to the facts of the incident, which were widely reported by the media. It is extremely concerning that the police did not inform The Caravan of this FIR for four years,” the PCI statement said.
“Most disturbing is the fact that the journalists who were reporting on allegations against the police were attacked and are now facing a serious FIR at the same police station”, the statement said, adding, “the same police have not followed up on the FIR by The Caravan journalists”.
Stating that this is a clear attempt to suppress journalists and to throttle press freedom, the PCI said, “It extends full support to the journalists of The Caravan who are being persecuted simply for carrying out their journalistic duty. We also condemn the biased and vindictive conduct of the Delhi police.”
The PCI asked the police “to halt the FIR against the journalists and to properly investigate the FIR by The Caravan journalists”. It also appealed to “the Delhi High Court to monitor the investigations so that power is not misused to attack press freedom.”
Allegations in the FIR are fabricated: The Caravan
Meanwhile, The Caravan, in a media release, said that among the attackers on its journalists included an office-bearer of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The Caravan said the alleged BJP worker launched the attack after learning that Tantray was a Muslim.
The Caravan said that an FIR pertaining to the attack was filed immediately after the assault in August 2020 by The Caravan staffers and the incident was reported in national and international media. But the police did not investigate it even though four years have completed since the incident. The Caravan staffers were also not given a certified copy of the FIR by the Bhajanpura police.
According to The Caravan, police registered an FIR against the journalists within hours of the incident but kept it hidden from The Caravan. However, police took three days to file FIR against the accused persons based on the complaint of The Caravan journalists. Surprisingly the police now have informed that Caravan journalists FIR is being considered a “counter FIR.”
The Caravan statement said that police issued a notice to Prabhjit Singh in May this year. As Singh had changed his residence, the police pasted the notice on his previous residence. When Prabhjit contacted the police, he learnt that the notice was not in connection with the FIR filed by him but with regard to the FIR registered by the accused persons.
“These are shocking and worrying developments. The allegations in the FIR are absolutely false and fabricated. For four years, neither The Caravan nor the named journalists were ever informed of any such FIR,” the Caravan statement said.
The Caravan statement further said, “The investigation in our FIR, which detailed the attack on our staffers, remains pending. Neither were our reporters asked to join the investigation in that case, nor were we informed of the status of progress, for four years. By contrast, the alleged case against our reporters has been duly put together.”
