The journalist was slapped with charges including cheating, forgery, and preventing a public servant from discharging his duty. Damodharan’s colleagues say he has been working with the same channel, a leading South Indian network, for the last 10 years. He had produced his ID card to the police, they claimed. Sources say the journalist was detained at 10.30 pm, Tuesday.

Later in the night, he was produced before a magistrate who remanded him in judicial custody. “Damodharan came to know that doctors are not present in the PHC. After several visits, he confirmed that doctors were not visiting the hospital and that the nurses and paramedical staff were handing out medicines,” says another journalist based in Minjur.