16 July 2020: Welcoming the arrest of owner of Afkar daily Pyare Miyan, accused of raping four minor girls and running a sex racket in Madhya Pradesh, the Indian Journalists Union demanded strictest action be taken against him as other than his heinous crimes he had sullied the profession of journalism. Further, the Union demanded the SIT investigate the matter thoroughly in the backdrop of rumours he had a ‘quid pro quo relationship with those in power’.
Miyan, who was absconding carried a reward of Rs 30,000 on his head, and was arrested in Srinagar, J&K on Wednesday following a group of minor girls in capital Bhopal being found by police in a disoriented condition on the city outskirts. Investigations reveal Miyan brought out Afkar, solely for ‘government advertisements and to get access to politicians, police and bureaucrats.’ SP (South) Sai Krishna Thota told The Indian Express that Miyan had travelled abroad with minor girls in past few years, though he passed these off as treatment/business-related.
He was dealing in property and owns several properties in Bhopal and Indore and the district administration demolished a wedding hall built illegally by him and a flat among others. His flat, which the police broke into, resembles a dance bar with expensive liquor bottles and child pornography, sex toys etc. Miyan’s 21-year-old woman accomplice, a driver, a manager were taken into custody.
In a statement, IJU President and former Member, Press Council of India Geetartha Pathak and Secretary General and IFJ Vice President Sabina Inderjit, regretted the media was getting a bad name because of crooks like Miyan. They welcomed cancellation of his accreditation and withdrawal of government quarter allotment in Professors’ Colony from where he ran his office. Noting Miyan’s activities suggest he had support of those in power the IJU insisted a thorough probe and all, including the powerful, be brought to book. Recalling, a similar case of Brajesh Thakur, who claimed to be a journalist and ran a sex racket in a girls’ shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, the Union called upon its members and journalist fraternity to uphold ethical standards and expose those who were misusing the profession for personal gains and power.
