SILCHAR: A first information report (FIR) was registered on Friday against a retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer over allegations that he threatened a journalist for his news channel’s reportage of a protest involving his son, a police officer.
Bajali district’s additional superintendent of police (Addl SP) Tribayan Bhuyan said the FIR was registered against Hitesh Dev Sarma under sections 351(2) (criminal intimidation and death threat), 352 (intentional insult with the intent to provoke breach of peace), and 296 (obscene acts in public places) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at Pathshala police station.
Sarma retired as the state coordinator of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, in 2022.
On Saturday, the Bajali police asked the journalist, Rana Deka, to appear at the police station to record his statement. The senior police officer said a notice would soon be issued to Sarma to record his statement.
According to the FIR, the journalist, associated with a Guwahati-based news channel NKTV, said Sarma called him on Thursday to express his disagreement with a news report related to the October 15 violence outside Baksa district jail when the police were shifting five persons arrested in connection with singer Zubeen Garg’s death following a court order.
Deka said their reportage - he had covered the protest along with three colleagues -- showed some police personnel, including the Baksa Addl SP Geetartha Dev Sarma, the son of Hitesh Dev Sarma, taking aggressive action against protesters.
{{/usCountry}}Deka said their reportage - he had covered the protest along with three colleagues -- showed some police personnel, including the Baksa Addl SP Geetartha Dev Sarma, the son of Hitesh Dev Sarma, taking aggressive action against protesters.
{{/usCountry}}“Hitesh called me and said that we used morphed videos to malign his son’s image. I tried to convince him, but he began threatening me,” Deka said.
According to him, the retired official told him that he could be hit by a speeding vehicle on the street, and that the same could happen to his 8-year-old son while returning from school.
“He said that if such things happen, who would help? This was a clear death threat, and I lodged a complaint at Pathshala Police Station after that. We have the audio recording of the conversation and have submitted it to the police,” Deka told HT.
HT reached out to Sarma for his version on the allegation. He has not responded to multiple phone calls and a text message seeking his comment.