UP Journalist Booked For Conspiracy For His Roti-Salt Report On Mid Day Meal Given Clean Chit
Pawan Jaiswal, a Mirzapur-based journalist who was booked by the Uttar Pradesh Police on charges including conspiracy after his report about students in a local school being served roti and salt instead of vegetables for the mid-day meal embarrassed the Yogi Adityanath government has been given a clean chit in the case.?
On Wednesday the Mirzapur Police said that they have given a clean chit to Jaiswal as they could not find any evidence against him on the alleged charges.?
In September Jaiswal, a reporter of local Hindi daily Jansandesh Times along with two others, including the representative of the village head were booked under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharging duty), 193 (false evidence) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code after his video showing the students eating roti and salt went viral on social media, causing much embarrassment to the Yogi government.?
"The case was registered on the basis of a report of the inquiry team constituted by District Magistrate, Mirzapur. The case was registered on August 31 against Rajkumar Pal, Principal representative of village Talifpur, Hitona and Journalist Pawan Jaiswal and an unidentified person," mentions the case diary."After all the investigation and inquiry and on the basis of witnesses, the case is established only against Rajkumar Pal while it is found that Pawan Jaiswal has no involvement in it. There is nothing more left for the purpose of inquiry in the case," said the police report which was placed before Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad, Chairman, Press Council of India.
After being intimated about it, district authorities called it Ą°a serious lapseĄą and initiated an inquiry into the incident. A teacher was also suspended in this regard.?
In the FIR the Mirzapur Police had stated that only rotis were cooked in the school on that particular day and that the village head's representative should have arranged for vegetables instead of calling a reporter to the school premises.Both the journalist as well as the village head's representative are accused of cheating and criminal conspiracy by the state government.?
The UP government and police had come under fire from various corners, including from the Editors Guild of India which said that the FIR against Jaiswal was 'shooting the messenger'.Ą°It is a cruel and classic case of shooting the messenger. It is precisely expos¨Ļ such as these that show how valuable free and fearless journalists are to a democratic society,Ąą the Guild had said.
