Journalist arrested, triggers protest in Guwahati

way2barak March 26: The arrest of a journalist of a digital news portal by the Assam police in Guwahati triggered a protest by media persons on Wednesday.

Dilwar Hussain Mozumder, Assistant General Secretary of Guwahati Press Club and chief reporter of The CrossCurrent, was detained by the police on Tuesday after he had asked some questions to the managing director of a cooperative bank in connection with alleged financial irregularities in the institution. He was arrested after midnight.

The police actions followed a protest by the Jatiya Yuva Shakti, which is the youth wing of the political party Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), against the alleged financial irregularities involving the bank. The AJP condemned the arrest.

Mozumder is the prime accused in the FIR filed by a complainant, whose name was not mentioned in the arrest information report. The report said the nature of the offence is cognisable and non-bailable, as per the provisions of the BNS and the SC/ST Act.

The accused’s actions amount to an offence under Section 3(1)(r) of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, as the remarks were made to intentionally insult, humiliate and offend the dignity of the complainant, who belongs to a Scheduled Tribe,” the police report said.

On Wednesday, journalists took out a march and staged a dharna protesting Mozumder’s arrest and demanding his release. The Guwahati Press Club said the protest would continue.

The Press Club of India (PCI) condemned the police highhandedness, particularly the refusal to inform Mozumder’s family and his colleagues on what grounds he was detained.

“The protest (by AJP’s youth wing) was held against alleged multi-crore (rupees) scam in the recruitment of the bank. While the Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is the bank’s director, its chairman is Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Biswajit Phukan,” the PCI said in a statement.

“When the Bank’s managing director Dambaru Saikia arrived at the scene, Mozumder approached him for a news byte, and asked him if he could stop there to reply to his questions. Saikia could be heard on camera asking him to come to his office upstairs instead, which Mozumder did. However, on coming out of the bank, he received a call on his phone from the Pan Bazar police station, asking him to report. On arrival, he was detained,” the statement said.

“Since Mozumder was on fast, his wife had reached the police station with Iftar in the early evening which too was refused. Mozumder, a diabetic, was also not allowed medicines,” the PCI alleged.

It said preventing a journalist from carrying out his official duty is a grave infringement of the freedom of the press guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (A) of the Constitution.

The PCI urged the Assam government and the chief minister to look into the matter with all sincerity, and ensure that the police respect the true spirit of the SC/ST Act, while also taking into consideration that there must not be any false charges lodged against a reporter who belongs to a backward, minority community, and was covering a sensitive corruption-related protest as part of his routine job.