Arrests – Journalists

Days after a journalist was held for allegedly posting objectionable comments on social media, another scribe was arrested from Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region on charges of manhandling school staffers and house trespass making it the fourth arrest of a journalist in the last one year in Bastar region. Deepak Jaiswal, 32 was held on a complaint lodged by principal of a government high school Ranjeet Tikam last year in which he had also named journalist Prabhat Singh, who was arrested on March 22 by Bastar Police.

“Jaiswal was held yesterday for entering government high school in Geedam police station area in Dantewada without permission during an examination in May, 2015, and threatening the principal,” Dantewada Superintendent of Police Kamlochan Kashyap told PTI. As per the complaint, Jaiswal along with Singh had allegedly entered the school during the exam and tried to recover money from Tikam by threatening him, the SP said.

Based on the complaint, an investigation was carried out and Jaiswal was arrested. Prabhat had already been apprehended, he said. The SP claimed that Jaiswal was not a journalist as per the record with directorate of public relations office. But runs a hotel at Geedam bus stand. According to Dantewada-based journalists, Jaiswal was working with a Hindi daily ‘Dainandini’ in the past.