NEW DELHI, Nov 15: Two women journalists detained by the Tripura police on Sunday for reporting on recent instances of alleged religious vandalism in Tripura were granted bail by the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court on Monday evening in Udaipur sub-division of Gomati district.
The journalists were arrested at Nilambazaar police station in Assam late Sunday night and brought back by a special team of the Tripura Police. Produced before the court of Judge Subhra Nath, they were granted bail. The court also instructed them to cooperate with the police in their questioning and investigation.
Speaking to reporters, senior advocate Pijush Kanti Biswas said, “The judge has signed the order. The court has said prima facie it is of the view that there is no reason not to grant bail. The court has imposed condition of a bond of Rs 70,000 and to appear before the police when summoned. They will have to appear tomorrow before the Kakraban police station and they will cooperate.”
On the case slapped against the journalists, Biswas alleged that the FIR against his clients didn’t construe the alleged offence and added that the state was not being fair in the matter.
“Police arrested two journalists of Bombay-based news agency from Karimganj last night. They had come to cover news. In the last few days, news was being carried in national media about religious vandalism and attacks on some minority people. They came here to verify the truth and cover the news. They visited Udaipur and parts of North Tripura where there were allegations that mosques were attacked and vandalised. They published whatever they saw on social media,” Biswas said.
The lawyer said allegations of communal hatred levelled against the journalists weren’t found in the FIR. “This arrest is an example of arbitrary power of the police, high-handedness and attack and threat on democracy and that is also an attack on rights to express the opinion of the citizens, media… FIR contents don’t construe any such offense. So, their detention was done out of ill intention. The state was not fair on this issue and they were dishonestly dealt with,” he said. The case would be heard again on November 29.
A senior Tripura Police official said they were arrested by a special team of the state police – which was dispatched to bring them back – at Nilambazaar police station while they were moving from Dharmanagar to Silchar in a car. “A team of Tripura Police, sent with special permission from court, arrested them and brought them back yesterday. They were produced before a local court after preliminary investigation,” the official said.
Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha, both writing for a new network, said on social media that they visited different parts of Tripura for three days for ground coverage on reports of vandalism in a few religious institutions last month. These incidents had allegedly taken place in the aftermath of religious vandalism in Bangladesh.
However, Tripura Police took cognisance of certain statements the journalists made on social media and filed two separate FIRs against them – one at Kakraban police station in Gomati district and one at Fatikroy police station in Unakoti district.
(Manas Dasgupta)