Shamli (Uttar Pradesh) | Adding to the wave of attack on journalists, Amit Sharma was beaten, abused by Railway Police personnel in western Uttar Pradesh when he went to cover the derailment of a train.
“They were in plain clothes. One hit my camera and it fell down. When I picked it up, they hit and abused me. I was locked up, stripped and they urinated in my mouth,” said Amit Sharma, a stinger for a news channel.
The railway police thrashed the journalist and snatched away his camera which he was using to record the derailment.
Several other local journalists rushed to the police station. Some called the senior officers to get help. They also recorded this video, which has now been doing rounds on social media.
SHOCKING: Enough is enough, UP Police! A local stringer of a national news channel thrashed by henchmen of GRP Police in Shamli.
His mistake: He was doing his duty & had exposed the illegal vendor nexus in trains a few days ago. He was thrashed, taken to PS and locked up! pic.twitter.com/NJYtNne1Xx
— Prashant Kumar (@scribe_prashant) June 11, 2019
Amit Sharma was released by today morning after all the protests.
“I had exposed them in my story. They were making huge money through unauthorized vendors. They offered me 50,000 rs to keep mum, I refused the money. They then thrashed me, dragged me to PS. I want all of them to be suspended”, the journalist told a news channel.
Meanwhile, UP Police has informed on Twitter that they have suspended the ones responsible.
“We have come across a video where a journalist has been beaten up & put up in a lock up. DGP UP OP Singh has ordered for immediate suspension of SHO GRP Shamli Rakesh Kumar & Const. Sanjay Pawar,” the Uttar Pradesh police tweeted.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
