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2 journalists arrested over Tripura violence reportage granted bail
Tripura violence: The two journalists, who were arrested for alleged criminal conspiracy and spread of communal hatred, were granted bail on Monday.
Two women journalists arrested by Tripura police for alleged criminal conspiracy and spread of communal hatred while reporting on the October 26 violence in the state were granted bail by a magistrate’s court on Monday.
Journalists Samriddhi K Sakunia and Swarna Jha, employed with Delhi-based news channel HW News Network, were arrested by Tripura police in the early hours of Monday, following their detention in Assam’s Karimganj district on Sunday. The two scribes were on their way to Silchar airport when Assam police, on instructions from their Tripura counterparts, detained them at Karimganj, close to the border of the two states.
On Monday morning, Sakunia and Jha were brought back to Tripura and produced before the chief judicial magistrate’s court in Udaipur sub-division of Gomati district, which granted them bail on bail bonds of ₹75,000 each.
“The court granted them bail with a bond of ₹75,000 and imposed a condition to appear before police and cooperate with them whenever required. Accordingly, they need to appear before Kakraban police station on Tuesday,” senior advocate Pijush Kanti Biswas, who appeared for the scribes on behalf of HW News Network, said. Biswas said the journalists had visited Tripura to report on the October 26 violence in which a mosque, a few houses and shops were allegedly vandalised by activists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) in the north-eastern state. Biswas also alleged that police’s charges of spreading communal hatred were not found in the FIR copy.
“The FIR copy did not have any mention of any such offence and their arrest shows police using their high-handedness. It is an attack and threat on democracy as well as a threat to the citizens and media’s right to express their opinion. The state was unfair in this issue,” Biswas said.
HT tried to reach out to Tripura Police for a response but could not get one immediately.
On Sunday, the two scribes were booked by Tripura police after one Kanchan Das accused them of delivering an “instigating speech” against the Hindu community and the Tripura government during their meeting with a few Muslim families at Palbazar in the state’s Unakoti district on November 13.
In his complaint, Das, a resident of Kumarghat, alleged the two journalists claimed that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal were behind the alleged vandalisation of a mosque during the violence last month.
Subsequently, Tripura police registered two separate cases against the journalists. While one case was registered at Fatikroy police station in Unakoti district, on the basis of Das’ complaint, the other was filed at Kakraban police station in Gomati district.
The two scribes were booked under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between two groups on grounds of religion) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of IPC at Fatikroy police station.
