Journalist Arrested, Says Framed For Facebook Posts On Bihar Governor

The journalist was arrested on Sunday in Barmer and taken to Patna on Monday evening

A journalist from Rajasthan's Barmer has been arrested after a Dalit man from Patna filed a case accusing him of assault. The journalist, Durga Singh Rajpurohit, claims he is being framed for his Facebook posts linking Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik with a local BJP leader, Priyanka Choudhary.

Sources close to Mr Malik, who was yesterday appointed governor of Jammu and Kashmir, said, "The Governor's name is being unnecessarily dragged into this case. He has nothing to do with this controversy, except for the fact that he visited Barmer twice on invitation by Priyanka Choudhary."  

The so-called complainant has, curiously, denied filing a case. "I didn't file any complaint. Please don't drag me in this controversy," Rakesh Paswan, a daily wage labourer from Nalanda, told NDTV.

Suspicious, the Patna police are now conducting a deeper investigation. Police officer Nayyar Hasnain Khan said, "The police will investigate the matter but we had no role in it, as the warrant was issued by the court after the complaint was filed in court".

The complaint was filed under the Prevention of Atrocities against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Act. Mr Rajpurohit has been accused in it of hiring Rakesh Paswan - the complainant - to do some work in Rajasthan but not paying him. The complaint says when Rakesh Paswan returned to Patna, the journalist followed him and demanded that he return with him to Barmer and resume work.

When the man refused, Mr Rajpurohit allegedly abused him and beat him up.

Mr Rajpurohit was arrested by the Rajasthan police on Sunday and taken to Patna on Monday evening to be produced in court.

The journalist, who works with a vernacular daily in Rajasthan, said on the day of the alleged assault, May 7, he was not in Patna but in Barmer, attending a poetry evening.

His family alleges that Priyanka Choudhary wanted to "teach him a lesson".

"We don't know kind of pressure that was brought on the Superintendent of Police in Barmer so that he arrested my son. But we have faith in the judiciary and I'm confident that justice will be done to my son," said Mr Rajpurohit's father, Guman Singh Rajpurohit, who accompanied him to Patna.

Priyanka Choudhary has said she was being "unnecessarily targeted in this case by journalists".

"The fact remains that there was a warrant from a court in Patna, which was executed by the Rajasthan Police," the Rajasthan BJP worker told reporters at a press conference in Barmer.