Indus Valley Times

GUWAHATI,NOV.14: A supporter of a right wing organisation lodged an FIR with the police in Tripura against two women journalists, who are said to be Delhi-based.

The scribes – Sammriddhi K Sakunia and Swarna Jha – were booked under IPC sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).

The complainant, Kanchan Das, alleged in his FIR that the duo visited some houses of one community at a village under Fatikroy Assembly constituency and made some inciting comments against another community. He also alleged that they made some “conspiratorial” remarks against the state government.

The two scribes were in the state to cover the recent violence. “FIR in Tripura. @Jha_Swarnaa and I, the correspondent at @hwnewsnetwork have been booked under 3 sections of IPC at the Fatikroy police station, Tripura. VHP filed complaint against me and @Jha_Swarnaa. FIR has been filed under the section: 120(B), 153(A)/ 504,” Sakunia wrote on Sunday morning in one of her series of tweets.

She said she would issue a statement soon “iterating all the intimidation I had to face while covering the #Tripura story”. She alleged the two of them were not being allowed to move outside their hotel. The police rubbished the charges.

“We had served a notice on them seeking their appearance before the Fatikroy police station but they asked for time stating they would need to talk to their lawyer. So, we asked them to depose on November 21,” a senior police officer said.

He refuted the charge of intimidation, stating the CCTV cameras at the hotel in Dharmanagar could be checked. “We politely dealt with them and this can be verified with the help of the CCTV cameras installed at the hotel,” the police officer said, adding the duo checked out the hotel at around 8 am.

-NIE