Remember the video of school kids eating rotis and salt under a flagship scheme of the central government in eastern Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur district? Now, a case has been filed by the state government against the journalist who shot the video.
NDTV reported that in the complaint, the Block Education Officer of the area has accused the journalist, Pawan Jaiswal, and a representative of the local village head Rajkumar Pal of conspiracy to defame the Uttar Pradesh government.
In the video that had gone viral, school children could be seen sitting on the floor and eating roti and salt as part of their mid day meal. The Uttar Pradesh Mid Day Meal Authority website, on the other hand, has a menu that includes pulses, vegetables, rice and rotis, along with fruits and milk, to be served to students.
The three-page FIR says that only rotis were cooked in the school on that particular day but adds that the village head's representative should have arranged for vegetables instead of calling a reporter to the school premises.
The FIR also says that the video was shot by the local journalist, who works with the Jansandesh Times, and then forwarded to the news agency ANI. The video was widely shared on social media and defamed the state government, it adds.
Both the journalist as well as the village head's representative are accused of cheating and criminal conspiracy by the state government.?
A screen grab of the incident
According to the FIR, it has been found out that the village head¡¯s representative informed one of the school teachers at 10.47 am on August 22 that the school cook did not have enough supplies but the teacher returned only to see students eating chapatis with salt and the journalist shooting the video.
¡°It is clear that Rajkumar Pal was already aware that vegetables were not cooked till noon that day...Instead of making any effort to make vegetables available, he hatched a conspiracy and called Jaiswal and got the video to go viral,¡± the FIR said.?
¡°Rajkumar Pal and Pawan Kumar Jaiswal deliberately did this in a planned way and defamed the Uttar Pradesh government¡¯s mid-day meal scheme,¡± it added.?
They have been booked under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public function), 193 (false evidence) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.