Four years after three journalists and a group of residents in northeast Delhi’s Bhajanpura area accused each other of assault, police have questioned one of the scribes in the case.
Journalist Prabhjit Singh, who works with The Caravan, was notified on June 3 and asked to join the investigation on June 7, a senior police officer said on Saturday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northeast) Joy Tirkey said Singh joined the investigation at Bhajanpura police station on June 7 and his statement was recorded.
Further investigations are being carried out into the matter, he said.
Giving details of the case, the officer said that on August 11, 2020 around 3 pm, a PCR call was received at Bhajanpura police station about an altercation involving some journalists.
According to journalists, the incident occurred when they were going to report a story in Bhajanpura.
Both parties lodged separate complaints against each other, after which two separate FIRs were registered, police said.
Singh had alleged that a female reporter accompanying him was sexually assaulted and abused by some people at Subhash Mohalla in Bhajanpura, the officer said.
He said Singh did not mention the names of the accused in his complaint.
A resident had also filed a written complaint about the incident alleging that Prabhjit Singh and his two fellow reporters, including Shahid Tantray, assaulted her and her husband.
He said the complainant also alleged that the trio made “negative reports” promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion.
The officer said the resident’s statement was recorded before the magistrate, but the reporter has not joined the investigation so far.
The Caravan in a statement said that this was a “worrying” development and that neither it nor the named journalists were informed of such an FIR for four years.
She alleged that on August 11, 2020, a mob attacked three journalists working with her (Shahid Tantray, Prabhjit Singh and a female journalist) in northeast Delhi’s Subhash Mohalla neighborhood.
The journalists were subjected to communal insults and threats of murder; The reporter was sexually harassed, the magazine alleged.
“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 informed of any such FIR,” he said.
“Though our complaints were lodged on the day of the incident, the police did not register our FIR until three days later on August 14, 2020. The police informed us that our FIR is being considered a ‘counter-FIR’,” he added.
“We have joined the investigation and intend to fully comply with due legal process. We will exercise our rights under the law to challenge these false accusations and have them dismissed,” the statement added.
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