Express News Service
GUWAHATI: Two Delhi-based women journalists arrested in Tripura on various charges, including criminal conspiracy, were granted bail by a local court.
The journalists — — Sammriddhi K Sakunia and Swarna Jha –were granted bail by the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court in the Gomati district of Tripura. They were arrested for their reportage on the vandalism at a mosque in the state.
The court also asked the duo to appear before a local police station on Tuesday.
The scribes, who work for HW News Network, were covering the recent violence in Tripura. The duo, who came to Tripura to write on the recent communal incidents in Tripura, were detained by Assam police at Karimganj’s Neelam Bazar, close to the Assam-Tripura border on Sunday.
The Editors Guild of India had denounced police action against the journalists and demanded their immediate release.
After a supporter of a right-wing organisation had lodged an FIR against the duo in Tripura on Saturday night, they were booked under IPC sections 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace).
The complainant, Kanchan Das, alleged in his FIR that they had visited some houses of one community at a village under Fatikroy Assembly constituency and made some inciting comments against another community and “conspiratorial” remarks against the state government. They visited the state to cover the recent violence.
