Raipur: Raipur police arrested four BJP leaders on late Saturday for assaulting a journalist in their party office later in the evening.
They were arrested after a case was registered against the district president of BJP Rajeev Agarwal, a local leader Vijay Vyas, Utkarsh Trivedi, and Deena Dongre.
Journalist Suman Pandey had gone to cover a meeting that BJP had called regarding their defeat in the recent Raipur Assembly election. According to her, many leaders along with Raipur BJP president were present at the event.
He said in a statement that “I also went to cover the meeting and suddenly there some BJP leaders started manhandling another leader which I started recording on my mobile phone. Subsequently, Utkarash Trivedi and Raipur president of BJP Rajeev Agarwal attacked me and started beating me. They snatched my mobile and deleted the recording and kept me in a room for about 20 minutes.”
The journalist sustained minor injuries sat on a protest along with other journalists inside the BJP office to demand the arrest of the four accused BJP leaders.
“We have registered a case under section 342, 323, and 504 of Indian Penal Code on the complaint of Suman Pandey and investigation in the case is going on,” said Prafull Kumar Thakur, additional superintendent of police (ASP) Raipur said ahead of the arrest.
The spokesperson and senior BJP leader, Sacchinand Upansane, has denied the allegation and said that no one from their party has beaten the journalist.
He said “It was a review meeting and only allowed for party workers. Even after that the journalist was present in the meeting and was recording on the phone. Some workers objected and told him to delete the recording. He was never beaten. It was a minor issue but our district president was booked by police,”
After the protest by the journalists, the four accused were arrested by the police.
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