This Article is From Jul 15, 2012

Guwahati molestation case: Two more arrested; reporter accused of 'inciting' mob resigns - Top 10 facts

Guwahati molestation case: Two more arrested; reporter accused of 'inciting' mob resigns - Top 10 facts
Guwahati: Even as angry voices are raising questions on the police's role in the Guwahati molestation case, two more people- Diganta Basumatary and Nabajit Deka have been arrested. There are many questions also being raised about the role of the media. Right to Information (RTI) activist Akhil Gogoi has alleged that an off-duty journalist of the channel which shot and aired the incident, Gaurav Jyoti Neog, "incited" the mob. Mr Neog has resigned from the channel and says there is a conspiracy against him.

Here are the 10 developments in the case:

  1. Of the 50-strong mob that night, 12 people have been identified. Two more men have been arrested today taking the number to six arrests. A police official has also been suspended for dereliction of duty amid ongoing raids in Assam and neighbouring states to nab the remaining culprits. The first arrest was made only on Wednesday, two days after the incident.

  2. Gaurav Jyoti Neog, the Newslive channel reporter who has been accused of "planning and directing" the ghastly mob attack on a 20-year-old girl in Guwahati, has resigned. He says there is a controversy against him. Right To Information (RTI) activist Akhil Gogoi had claimed that he has in his possession video footage that proves Mr Neog "incited" the 50-strong mob. The RTI activist held press conferences on Friday and Saturday to prove his allegations.

  3. Sub Inspector of Dispur Police Station has been suspended in the molestation case. The Director General of Police said, he has been suspended 'for not reporting on unjustified grounds'.

  4. Mr Gogoi showed footage at his presser today which had a voice asking for the girl being molested to be brought to a well-lit area since the camera had arrived. Mr Gogoi has suggested a forensic test to prove that the voice is Mr Neog's. The voice, he alleges is heard making lewd comments, but that these comments were beeped out in the footage that Newslive aired. He has refused to release the footage he has in public, he says, but says he will give it to the National Commission for Women (NCW), which is inquiring into the incident.

  5. Mr Neog has rejected Mr Gogoi's charges, though he does say he was present that night at the pub, Club Mint, which the victim had just left when the incident happened. He has refused to say anything else and says his managing editor will speak on his behalf. His Editor Zarir Hussain says Mr Gogoi is indulging in vendetta because his channel has questioned the activist's credibility. He says his reporter, Mr Neog in fact tried to help the girl and that Newslive has that on video. Mr Gogoi, he alleges, has played footage out of context.

  6. The NCW team, which visited the victim at her residence on Saturday, say the victim reiterated to them that she could see the camera light on her. They say, she told them she knew she was being recorded and kept pleading but he did not help her.

  7. The NCW team, also say they found signs of cigarette burns on her body. "The girl has wounds on her body. The boys who were drunk must have been smoking cigarettes because there were cigarette marks on the girl's body," said Alka Lamba, a member of the special team of the NCW that's probing the incident.

  8. The 20-year-old victim was molested at about 9:30 on Monday night for around 40 minutes on a busy street outside the pub in Guwahati's Christian Basti area. Just one kilometre away is the nearest police station, and the government's headquarters at the state secretariat. But the police took 30 minutes to get there after they received an emergency call.

  9. Dipya Bordoloi, Newslive's night reporter and a cameraperson managed to capture the incident that was subsequently aired on the channel that night. Mr Bordoloi said he tried to help the girl but was outnumbered by the many men in the mob attacking the girl. On Monday night, the channel aired edited footage - it showed just the policemen arriving to rescue the girl, about 20 minutes after she was attacked.

  10. Mukul Kalita, the editor of a local newspaper, Ajir Asom, told NDTV that he was passing by when he chanced upon the girl being beaten by the mob on Monday night. "She held on to me, saying 'Uncle, help me' while the mob heckled me," Mr Kalita said. He too was beaten up and his clothes were bloodstained after the incident. Mr Kalita said even after the police had rescued the girl, the mob followed her into the police jeep which was filled with armed cops, and hit her. 



Post a comment
.