The Rajasthan Police on Friday picked up two journalists from Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, claiming that they had carried false and defamatory stories against Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari and demanded Rs 5 crore to take them down.
Anand Pandey, Editor in Chief of The Sootr, and Harish Divekar, the Managing Editor of the news website, were picked up by the Rajasthan police from Bhopal, where the news portal is headquartered.
Speaking to The Indian Express, a spokesperson for The Sootr termed the police action “shocking and unlawful”. Jaipur police claimed their “investigation revealed that the accused had made an illegal demand of Rs 5 crore to remove false news” from the portal and that they had planned to launch a ‘Destroy Diya’ campaign.
Speaking to The Indian Express, a spokesperson for The Sootr said that over the last seven years, they have “consistently raised questions about governance, accountability, and public interest” and that “our reporting on the corruption allegations involving the Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister is backed by proper documentation and verifiable evidence”.
“On Friday, two of our senior journalists — Divekar and Pandey — were picked up by the Rajasthan police from Bhopal in a shocking and unlawful manner. Both were in the city at the time — Divekar was with his family, and Pande was meeting a friend,” the spokesperson said.
