According to the letter “The injured journalist, later, lodged an FIR against the local BJP leader Madhu Verma, her son, Rituraj and others in the local Kadamkuan police station. Surprisingly the injured journalist was the first to file the FIR with the Kadamkuan PS in this regard but he was not given the FIR no. then and there and later on the police asked the perpetrator to file a FIR against the journalist itself. The perpetrator’s FIR was recorded first on Kadamkuan PS record and the victim journalist’s FIR thereafter. Though in reality it was the victim journalist, who was the first to file the FIR, and not the perpetrator as had been shown in the police record.

“However, no action has so far been taken against the accused persons ostensibly under some pressure from the NDA ruling alliance party BJP. The local BJP MLA, Arun Kumar Sinha is allegedly supporting the party leader openly influencing the police officials and other leaders of the party.

“The incident has enraged the journalist fraternity in the state and they’ve demanded an immediate action against the accused persons with justice to the victim journalist. A large number of senior journalists of the state had held a meeting on 29 January 2012 to condemn the incident.

“Under Section 13(1) of the Press Council Act, 1978, it is the duty of the Press Council to preserve the freedom of the Press. by physical assaults on journalists/media establishments by various government agencies and other persons/organizations;

“As you had also recently issued strong press statements to the Chief Ministers of J&K, Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh in similar matters. I demand sending a Fact Finding Team of the Press Council of India to investigate this complaint.

“I will also request you to keep me out of the Fact Finding Team in order to maintain neutrality and impartiality of the team because of my association with Bihar and also because of myself writing to you in this regard.

“I, therefore, Sir request you to take up this issue on your personal level so that justice could be done to the journalist and the PCI could play its statutory role in preserving the Freedom of the Press,” the letter concludes.

It needs to be recalled that after the meeting held on January 29, which was attended by about two dozen senior journalists of Bihar, a memorandum was submitted to the chief minister Nitish Kumar in this regard. The journalists repeatedly tried to get time to personally meet the chief minister but there
was no response from the CM’s office.

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