Chhattisgarh police book journalist for alleged extortion bid; 6 FIRs registered

RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh police booked a journalist for allegedly demanding extortion in Surguja and Balrampur districts, officials said on Wednesday.

Police claimed that the journalist, Jitendra Jaiswal, owner and editor of local newspaper Bharat Samman, was running an ‘extortion racket’ under the garb of journalism. Jaiswal was sent to judicial custody on Saturday and is lodged in Surjapur jail of Surguja division, officials said adding total six cases were registered against him.

However, Jaiswal’a advocate alleged that his client was continuously writing against corruption within the police department hence the police booked him under fake charges.

“Jitendra Jaiswal through his web portal ‘Bharat Samman’ and the social media account used to circulate defamatory, false, rumour-based contents against victims and by doing so he used to run an extortion racket. Many victims were his prey and many didn’t complain due to fear of further spread of false rumors against them. Jaiswal had become so audacious that he even tried to threaten one complainant inside the police station premises, who somehow came to register a case against him,” said a statement issued by the Surguja police.

Police further claimed that based on the written application of one complainant, Jitendra Soni of Ambikapur district, on Friday, a case was registered under section 384 (Punishment for extortion), 392 (Punishment for robbery), 452 (House-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), 34 of IPC and thereafter another complainant came that day itself and based on the written application of Praveen Agarwal another case was lodged by police under similar sections.

“Another complaint was lodged in Ajak police station of Surguja after which another FIR was registered against Jaiswal under section 294, 506, 509 IPC and 3(1)(r)(s) SC/ST Atrocity Act, and investigation is going on,” said a senior official of Surguja district.

“Till now, we have registered six cases against him in Balrampur and Surguja districts and all of them are related to extortion. The complainants have alleged that he was extorting money from them for a long time. I believe he was extorting money from the victims or the accused in the garb of journalism. I can assure that a fair investigation in the case is going on,” said inspector general of police, Surguja range, Ajay Yadav.

Meanwhile, Jaiswal’s advocate, Shatrughn Singh said, “My client was continuously writing against the corruption in police; hence police have booked him under fake charges.”

It is worth mentioning that the Chhattisgarh government drafted a law “Chhattisgarh Protection of Media Persons Act” in which harassment of journalists is a cognizable yet bailable offence, with a jail term of up to one year for violators. A bill in this regard is still to be presented in the legislative assembly.

According to the final draft of the law, definition of media persons also included ‘news-gatherer’, a person certified by a media establishment, who forwards news, information, photos or video, used by media persons or media establishments three times in the preceding three months or six times in the preceding six months.