Two accused journalists got bail on Monday
On Monday, The CJM Gomati District granted conditional bail to the two young national media journalists who were accused of spreading false and fabricated news of alleged communal violence in Tripura.
Samruddhi K Sakunia and Swarnna Jha, who are working as journalists for HW News Media got accused of spreading fake propaganda by using their Twitter accounts.
Following the FIR, it is said that they arrived in Tripura and went to the Unakoti District. There they made provocative speeches and remarks to the minority people.
They were also alleged of posting a mosque vandalising and burning video on the social media criticising the law and order situation of Tripura.
However, this entire plot and news is denied by the Tripura Police considering it a fake news and propaganda after a procedural investigation.
As per the consequence, Tripura Police filed an FIR against those two young journalist and issued a summon notice to them advised for not leaving the state without any permission. Ignoring the summon notice, both of them left the state for Assam.
Yesterday, both of them were detained by the Karimganj Police and later handed over to the Tripura police.
However, the Information and Cultural Affairs Minister Sushanta Chowdhury while addressing the press media at Secretariat said, “They spread false news from their Twitter accounts. So the police asked them to cooperate as there was a case filed against them. But, instead of cooperating, they tried to escape away from this case.
He asserted that there were no incidents of vandalism in mosques and beatings of minorities in Tripura.
However, the two journalists entered Tripura with the identity of journalists and spread false and untrue news.
He also claimed that the two journalists had come to Tripura as accomplices of political parties. He also questioned “why they were afraid of the police if they had not done anything wrong. Why did they flee to Assam instead of flying to Delhi via Agartala ?”
They were produced before the Ld. CJM, Gomati District on 15/11/2021 afternoon with prayer for 05 days police remand. The Ld. Court upon hearing the case granted bail to the arrested persons with following conditions.
- Each of the accused persons shall furnish a bond of Rs. 75,000/- with one surety of like amount who should be a respectable person of the State of Tripura.
- The accused persons shall tender appearance before the 1/0 on every first day of the month starting from the appearance on the next day of their release until further order or filing of charge sheet whichever is earlier.
3. The accused persons shall not leave the territorial boundary of the country until further order or filing of charge sheet whichever is earlier without procuring prior permission of the court.
The case is under further investigation.
Tripura Police appreciates the role of media particularly the local media for standing by its side. It is further noticed that the local press has delivered a yeoman service in checking the spread of rumour by publishing the actual ground situation when the State has witnessed sporadic incidents on religious line between 20/10/2021 to 26/10/2021.