News Magazine Alleges Journalist Assaulted, Detained By Delhi Police

The Caravan magazine has alleged that police detained and assaulted their journalist while he was reporting a protest in North Delhi's Model Town, but the police denied the charge and asserted that it acted as per law.

In a tweet, the magazine alleged that police forcibly took the phone from journalist Ahan Penkar, 24, and then deleted all the videos he had recorded while reporting.

The journalist was detained for nearly four hours. He has also sustained injuries on his nose, shoulder, back and ankle, the magazine alleged, adding he has filed a complaint with the Delhi Commissioner of Police.

Police, however, refuted the allegation, terming it as "false". It said the allegation is being made only to escalate the situation.

It claimed the journalist was among the protesters who were detained for violating coronavirus-related restrictions and was subsequently released.

The police action is bonafide and is as per law, it said.

Police also said that it issued a notice to the journalist for his statement and questioning in connection with the matter.

According to police, a matter of alleged suicide by a girl working as a domestic help in the house of a 74-year-old widow was reported on October 4 at Model Town police station.

Inquest proceedings were conducted and the post-mortem was done on October 8 by a board of doctors from Safdarjung Hospital and the findings are that the death had occurred due to asphyxia.

The body was cremated by the family members at the cremation ground in Wazirpur on October 8.

"On Friday, some protesters staged a demonstration outside Model Town police station to put undue pressure on police and tried to give the incident a different narrative. Despite explaining the facts of the case and repeated warnings to disperse, a few people remained adamant.

"They flouted the DDMA guidelines issued in the wake of the epidemic," Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest) Vijayanta Arya said.