Uttar Pradesh: Court Refuses To Take Cognizance Of Chargesheet Against Five Journalists

A Bijnor court has refused to take cognizance of the chargesheet filed by the police against five local journalists, who were booked for promoting enmity between two communities. The court said that it lacks sufficient evidence against them.

The journalists had run a story about a Dalit community allegedly denying water to a Scheduled Tribe (ST) family from a hand pump.

According to The Indian Express report, the police had recently filed a chargesheet against the journalists Ashish Tomar, Shakeel Ahmed, Moin, Amir and Lakhan. Ashish and Shakeel were named in the FIR, while Moin, Amir and Lakhan names cropped up during the investigation.

"The court refused to take cognizance of the charge sheet because of insufficient evidence against the journalists. The court also directed that the Superintendent of Police, Bijnor, be informed in writing about the "erroneous investigation done in the case," Bijnor government counsel, Neeraj Kumar told the media.

The case of ST people being denied water dates back to August last year when two families clashed over water at Titarwala Basi village in Mandawar police station area. One of the families of the Dalit community allegedly refused to allow the ST community to collect water from a hand pump. Following whicg, the police reached the village and resolved the dispute. However, after the police left, the families again clashed.

On September 6, a police team visited the village after sections of the media reported that ST family put up posters on being denied their rights. According to the media report, the police said that five of those journalists had put up the poster.

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