Three staffers of Republic TV – a reporter, a cameraperson and a driver – have been arrested in Maharashtra's Raigad for allegedly trespassing into Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray's farmhouse in Raigad.
They have been sent to police custody for four days. The reporter has been identified as Anuj Kumar.
Sources have told The Quint that the complaint in this case was filed by the guard on night shift at the Thackeray farmhouse. It is learnt that a car with three people, allegedly belonging to Republic TV, stopped outside the mansion at around 7:30pm on 8 September.
They asked the guard on duty directions to the farmhouse. The guard, who became suspicious of the three, did not disclose the correct location to them and went back inside to alert the police.
Some time later, the three people who were in the car were back at the farmhouse and got into an altercation with the guard, asking him why he'd not given them correct directions. Sources say this altercation soon turned physical.
The police have started an investigation against the three and an FIR has been registered under sections 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault, or wrongful intent), 448 (house trespassing), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
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