Noida: Late on April 10 in Noida Extension, a senior Journalist of News18 was allegedly attacked by a group of people. He had complained against loudspeaker being played late at night in the name of ‘jagrata’ in society and made an appeal to turn it off. A mob attacked him without caring about policemen being present on the spot, reports said.
He was followed by large number of people for a long distance during this time, but when he reached near his house he sought help from the gunman present there, and made noise to call his neighbors. After this, the crowd turned back. However before this, he got threats from crowd against his family. The crowd also reportedly threatened the journalist that his wife will be paraded naked.
According to the information shared by News18, Saurabh Sharma, working in News 18 Hindi and living in Oxford Square Super Tech Ecovillage 3, society of Noida Extension, called on 112 number and sought help to stop playing songs on loudspeaker in the name of Jagrata. After this, police called him and said that they have reached the spot. On reaching there, when the police asked to stop the songs of Jagrata, the crowd got furious. Also, the organizer of the Jagrata said that the police have given them permission to play loudspeakers throughout the night.
When the journalist asked them to show the permission letter, they called him anti national, and threatened to kill by calling him Pakistani. The journalist opposed this and said that legally they cannot play loudspeakers after 10 o’clock in the night. Hearing this, the organizers said, “He is Pakistani, let’s kill him here”. Saurabh told that during this time two police personnel of PCR were present but they did nothing.
According to Saurabh, the crowd was not listening to him and attacked him. Saurabh had to run away during this and he struggled to save his life. Somehow, after escaping from there, Saurabh reached his house and went to the police station to give a complaint. When his wife contacted senior police officers and said that there was danger, they sent some policemen to the spot.
The policemen who reached the spot called Saurabh’s wife Ankita Sharma to the spot. On reaching the spot, the mob also misbehaved with his wife and abused her too. Police and Oxford Square’s RWA President KD Singh intervened and tried to convince the people and saved Ankita. During the ruckus of the crowd, Ankita’s reportedly left her 6-year-old child in the midst of the people and for about 45 minutes the child kept crying to go to his mother.
According to Saurabh, he had given Tahrir at the Bisrakh police station at 12 o’clock in the late night immediately after the incident. But despite this, on Monday, the police kept delaying the registration of the case. On Monday evening, around 3 pm, police officers from Bisrakh police station reached the society and recorded the CCTV footage and said that a case would be registered after talking to the seniors. During this, Saurabh continuously pleaded with the police officers to register the case, but they talked about taking a decision on Tuesday. During this, Saurabh pleaded with the police officers that his wife and 6-year-old child’s lives are in danger and the accused should be caught, but this could not happen till late Monday night.
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