Tripura Violence- Local Court Grants Bail To 2 Delhi Based Journalists Arrested On Charges Of Publishing False News

A Tripura Court has granted bail to two women Journalists associated with the HW News Network in connection with a case registered against them for posting on social media that a mosque was burnt in the Gomati district of Tripura and a copy of the Quran was damaged.

Journalists Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha were granted bail by the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Gomati Judicial District, Udaipur Subhra Nath. They Both were detained by the Tripura police yesterday after an FIR was registered against them.

Both the journalists have been named in two separate FIRs, one at Kakraban police station in Gomati district and one at Fatikroy police station in Unakoti district.

They have been granted bail in the Kakraban police station FIR, which was registered under sections 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) 120B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) 504(Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace).

"Our reporters Ms Samriddhi Sakunia and Ms Swarna Jha have been arrested by Tripura Police today at around 12:55 AM from a shelter home in Assam's Karimganj after securing their transit remand. They are being taken back to Tripura where they will be produced before Udaipur magistrate court. Senior Advocate Pijush Biswas shall be personally appearing for them on behalf of HW News Network. We are pressing for immediate bail and release of our journalists," the news organization HW News Network had tweeted.

As reported by PTI, a senior police official had said in Agartala that the journalists posted on social media that a mosque was burnt in Gomati district and a copy of the Quran was damaged. It was also officially claimed that the posts by Sakunia were not true and promoted a sense of hatred between communities.

A press release issued from the office of Tripura Police Director General V S Yadav said Samriddhi Sakunia's posts on Twitter spread hatred between communities by fabricating information, concealing records, etc, in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy.

"In this social media post, she posted a video of her visit to the half-burned prayer hall damaged by mischievous fire in the house of one Rahamat Ali of Hurijala, PS Kakraban on 11/11/2021 try to claim that one holy Quran was burned in the incident occurred in the night of 19/10/2021 which refers to Kakraban PS Case No. 74/2021 U/S 436 IPC. This is contrary to the findings so far revealed in course of investigation as the presence of no such damaged books/documents was brought to the notice of investigating officer and fire service staff who extinguished the fire," the police statement said.

Senior Advocate Pijush Biswas assisted by Advocate Mrinal Kanti Biswas appeared for Tikunia and Jha.

Speaking to Live Law, Advocate Mrinal Kanti Biswas said that Tikunia and Jha were granted bail after they filed a handwritten bail application before the Court. He also told that in their bail application, it was stated that the offences are not made out against the Journalists and that it was not any offence to post news/facts on Social Media or to broadcast them.