Silchar journalist booked under sedition charges over article on Pradip Dutta

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• Dec 6, 2021 | moderator

Silchar: A Silchar-based journalist, Anirban Roy Choudhury, was booked by the police on Saturday. He has been held under several charges, including Section 124 (A) (sedition) of the Indian Penal Code, for an alleged "offensive" article he wrote for his news portal.

Anirban Roy Choudhury works for Barak Bulletin, a news portal in the Cachar district of Assam's Barak Valley. He has received the summons from the Cachar Police after Santanu Sutradhar, a businessman, filed an FIR against him.

As per police reports, "He has been summoned under Section 41(A) (notice of appearance before police officer) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CPC) to the police station on December 6."

Anirban Roy, on November 28, wrote an article in the local news portal on the arrest of Dutta Roy after sedition charges were pressed against the senior advocate. 

The article criticized local Bengali residents for not extending support to Dutta Roy while he was "getting attacked" throughout his arrest on November 27.

The complaint filed by businessman Sutradhar claimed that Anibran's article could "hamper the brotherhood between the Bengali and Assamese of Assam."

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However, journalists from Barak Valley condemned the incident and threatened a mass protest to arrest Anirban Roy Choudhury. Since morning, journalists from different parts of Cachar have staged in front of Silchar police station.

Silchar-based journalist Abhijit Bhattacharjee stated, "We won't let these charges on journalists continue. We have called all the journalists across Barak Valley to meet in Silchar on Sunday afternoon. We'll purpose for a mass rally if the case is not withdrawn soon."

Moreover, such attacks on journalists have continued to occur in different states lately. Recently, two Delhi-based women journalists, named Samriddhi K Sakunia and Swarna Jha, were arrested in Assam's Karimganj district. They were arrested while returning from Tripura after covering a story on alleged vandalism of religious constructions. But, a local court in Tripura gave them bail on November 16, within two days of arrest.

Controversies on Assamese and Bengali languages have been in the headlines recently. Pradip Dutta Roy, the chief convener of Barak Democratic Front ( BDF), was arrested by Assam police for making controversial statements that could have disturbed the brotherhood between Assamese and Bengali residents.