IT Correspondent
Hyderabad, Nov 15:
Indian Journalists Union (IJU) expresses shock over the brutal murder of a young scribe in Bihar and demands a thorough probe into the incident that led to the untimely demise of Buddhinath Jha. The national union of scribes also raised voices for immediate release of two detained women journalists by the Tripura government in Agartala.
The 22 years old Madhubani-based scribe and a Right to Information activist was found dead on 12 November after he went missing for some days. Buddhinath (also known as Avinash Jha) used to report on many fake medical clinics operating in his locality. He was initially offered some money by the illegal clinic owners, but when he did not respond, they started threatening him of dire consequence.
Meanwhile, Two Delhi-based reporters namely Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha were detained by Assam police in Karimganj locality following the request of Tripura police. Associated with a news-portal, both the reporters came to Tripura for covering the recent communal violence in the Bangladesh bordering State and they were leaving Agartala by road on Sunday planning to reach Silchar of Assam.
“We warned in an earlier occasion also that the Tripura government was intimidating a number of social media users including journalists under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. But slapping brutal laws against the opposition voices will not serve the purpose and it would only aggravate the situation,” said IJU president K. Sreenivas Reddy and secretary general Balwinder Singh Jammu.
Tripura police claimed that they ‘wrongly’ posted inputs regarding the burning of a mosque in Gomati district a few days back and an FIR was lodged against the reporters. Earlier the police booked four Delhi-based lawyers under UAPA for ‘spreading’ hatred among various communities. They asserted that vested interests were trying to flare up communal tension and 102 individuals were booked under the UAPA provisions as a precautionary measure.
