Guwahati, 16 July 2020: The Indian Journalists Union strongly condemns the arrest of Rajib Sarma, correspondent of DY365 TV channel from Dhubri, Assam at midnight by Dhubri police resulting in the sudden death of the journalist’s father under shock.

Rajib was picked up from his house at 2 am on Thursday by Dhubri police following an FIR filed by the Dhubri Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Biswajit Roy. In the FIR, the DFO alleged that on July 8, Rajib had demanded money from him and threatened that his TV channel will expose the many irregularities committed by the DFO.

However, local journalists allege that Rajib was falsely implicated for his reportage exposing the illegal timber business and consequent deforestation of the district, where both forest and local police were involved. In fact, only recently, the TV channel had exposed a scandal relating to timber smuggling and illegal saw mill licencing in the district.

The arrest and worse Rajib’s father’s death has cast a pall of gloom, mixed with anger in the area. The journalist’s father was shocked at his son’s arrest and died the same night after a massive heart stroke. Rajib is currently on bail, granted to him for performing his father’s funeral.

In a statement, IJU President and former Member, Press Council of India Geetartha Pathak and IJU Secretary General and IFJ Vice President Sabina Inderjit said that arresting a journalist for his reportage at midnight like a dreaded terrorist smacks of ill-intent, harassment and intimidation and must be viewed as a bid to gag the media from reporting the truth. The IJU demands the State government investigate the timber scandal in the district instead of implicating journalists for their investigative public interest reports. Additionally, it demands compensation for the death of the reporter’s father.