Sammridhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha are two independent journalists covering the recent violence that occurred in Tripura against the Muslims community where people were targeted because of the faith they believe in. Their mosques were vandalized, houses were burnt, and spent days and nights in fear of the lives of theirs and their loved ones in the state.
Sammridhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha are journalists with HW News Network. Both of them were detained in Assam after a case was filed against them by the Tripura police. According to the police they were detained for “spreading communal disharmony” for their reporting on the vandalism of a mosque where a half-burnt Quran was also found.
Both the journalists were detained after accusing the Tripura police of intimidating them at the hotel they were staying in on Sunday and were not allowed to leave their hotel and travel to Agartala. Apparently, both the journalists have been granted bail by the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court in the Gomati district of Tripura.
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Advocate Pijush Biswas presenting the arguments in the favour of the journalists for their bail asserted how they haven’t reported anything wrong and the police have no evidence to prove that they have spread communal hatred.
“The charges made against the journalists are completely baseless. Police filed the case with mala fide intention,” the advocate highlighted. He also said his clients will move to Supreme Court for crushing the false case. Both of them were detained in Karimganj and were taken to Tripura on transit remand to be presented in front of the magistrate’s court in Udaipur which is around 500 km from the capital Agartala.
In the case filed against the journalists, the police made a statement saying that the case involved a tweet made by Ms Sakunia who visited the half-burnt prayer hall where the religious scripture Quran was found half burnt. Tripura police in a press release claimed that the tweets and the reporting done by the journalists were false and promoted a sense of hatred between communities.
The police also alleged that the videos posted on social media platforms were modified and adjusted. In a tweet made by Sammriddhi Sakunia on 11th November she wrote #Tripuraviolence Darga Bazaar: On 19th October at around 2:30 am, some unidentified people burnt down the mosque in the Darga Bazaar area. People in the neighbourhood are very upset with the fact that now they don’t have any place nearby to go and pray. There’s no other masjid nearby.“
Ms Sakunia and Ms Jha told the media that they were detained when they were on their way to the airport. They had to wait for three and half hours at the police station and after that, the escort team from Tripura came. They also mentioned that the police didn’t show them a copy of the order.
An official statement had been made by the channel both of them are working with. The HW News Network said – “despite the police allowing them to leave the hotel and giving them a week to record a statement… This is sheer harassment and targeting of the press on part of Tripura police”.
About a week ago tweets were circulated on social media which showed mosques being vandalized by the Hindu Vishawa Parishad. The Union Home Ministry completely denied the fact, as always. They also said that the reports were fake and “complete misrepresentation of the facts”.
Tripura police have registered different cases against 71 people which include lawyers, activists, and campaigners. They have also detained a huge number of people just because of the tweets they made about the communal violence that happened in Tripura. This is the freedom of speech and expression left in our country. Hundreds of students and activists are still in prison because they chose to raise their voices against Fascism and religious bigots in power.
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