New Delhi: A journalist and his technical assistant were arrested in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur on Monday, October 25, on charges of extortion, among others, levelled against them by two Congress MLAs of the state, the Indian Express reported.
Madhukar Dubey, owner of news portal zeroparty.in and Avinash Palliwar, a technical assistant working at the organisation, were booked after the two MLAs, Brihaspat Singh and Kuldeep Juneja alleged that the portal had published “misleading and baseless” information about them on October 24.
Satyaprakash Tiwari, station house officer (SHO) of the Civil Lines police station in Raipur confirmed that both the accused were arrested on Monday.
Two separate FIRs were lodged against Dubey and Palliwar under IPC Sections 384 (punishment for extortion), 189 (threat of injury to a public servant), 504 (intentional insult and provocation to break public peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 501 (1) (b) (intent to cause fear or alarm among the public).
According to police superintendent Prashant Agarwal, the primary investigation suggested that the news published by them was, indeed, baseless and that there had been no sting operation as the portal had claimed, the Hindustan Times reported.
After the arrest, the two accused were brought before a Chhattisgarh court and have been sent to judicial custody for a period of 14 days.