Journalist among two booked for shooting ‘roti, salt’ video in Mirzapur

The video went viral on social media on August 22 and prompted Mirzapur district magistrate Anurag Patel to order a probe into the matter. The school’s headmaster, Radha Gupt, was suspended while two other officials were issued a notice.

The Uttar Pradesh police on Sunday booked two people, including a journalist, for shooting and circulating a video of flatbread and salt being served to students at a government primary school at Shuir in Mirazpur district last month on charges that they conspired to defame the Uttar Pradesh government.

In this video still journalist Pawan Jaiswal, who had filmed students of a government school in eastern Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur district eating rotis with salt as their mid-day meal, reiterates that he shot what he saw at the school in Mirzapur. Jaiswal has been booked for allegedly doing ‘despicable work’ of maligning the image of the Uttar Pradesh government by recording a video of school children being served salt and roti in midday meal. (PTI Photo)

Mirzapur police superintendent Awadhesh Kumar Pandey said the two, Pawan Jaiswal and Rajkumar Pal, have been booked under sections 186 (voluntarily obstructing a public servant in discharge of his function), 193 (false evidence), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 420 (cheating).

“The case was registered following a complaint by an education officer in the matter. The accused, Pal, has been taken into custody,” said superintendent of police Awadhesh Kumar Pandey.

Jaiswal is a journalist though it’s not known if he represented any mainstream media.

Jaiswal said, “I had informed additional basic shiksha adhikari when I went to shoot the video.” He has also posted a video on social media in which he has claimed that he was merely “discharging his duty as a journalist.”

The video went viral on social media on August 22 and prompted Mirzapur district magistrate Anurag Patel to order a probe into the matter. The school’s headmaster, Radha Gupt, was suspended while two other officials were issued a notice.

Patel said he also constituted a four-member committee to look into the matter after Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath took a serious note of it. “On his instruction, a probe was conducted. The investigation revealed that the video was prepared and circulated deliberately,” said Patel. He further added that the video appeared to have been prepared with a malicious intent.

The district magistrate added the village head and the headmaster had sufficient funds to provide food to students under the midday meal scheme.

Patel said Pal, who looked after the work under the midday meal scheme at the school as a representative of the village head, called Jaiswal to the school on August 22 and, “under a conspiracy”, shot and shared the video on the social media.

Patel said that block education officer Prem Shankar Ram then instructed police to file a complaint against the two.