A Delhi-based journalist has been arrested by the police in Varanasi for a report she recently filed from the district in eastern Uttar Pradesh that is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha constituency.
Supriya Sharma, a journalist with the Scroll.in, has been charged defamation, as per reports.
She had reported in the article titled, ‘In Varanasi village adopted by Prime Minister Modi, people went hungry during the lockdown’.”
Since 2017, India has slipped six places in the World Press Freedom Index prepared by global body Reporters Without Borders and currently ranks at 142 in the list of 180 countries.
Supriya has been accused by the Police of the BJP led state Government of “negligent act likely to spread infection of disease”. She had done a story on the ration delivery system that she had reported from Domari, a village adopted by Narendra Modi
The FIR in the case was filed on June 13.
Dozens of journalists in India have been killed since the coming of Modi into power in 2014, a report numbers them to 40- Arrests, tortures and harassment has multiplied under the Modi regime.
Journalists in Kashmir have been thrashed while performing their professional duties, many were detained for days, hours, weeks and months, a few were also charged with Anti-terror laws.