Bastar journalist Prabhat Singh was arrested on 22 March 2016 for an alleged WhatsApp message insulting senior police official SRP Kalluri. He was charged with cheating and preventing a public servant from discharging his duties. After spending 86 days in jail, Singh was granted bail by the High Court. His colleagues, Somaru Nag & Santosh Yadav have been in jail for the last one year.
Speaking to The Quint on the sidelines of a press conference organised in Delhi, Singh says he was treated like a Naxal and a rapist in jail. He further adds that while he was picked up from Dantewada, the police in the FIR claim he was arrested from Jagdalpur. He claims he was ‘kidnapped’ by Kalluri’s men and taken to a prison where journalists are threatened and tortured. Singh claims this is a conspiracy to control the flow of information in mine rich Bastar where the security forces are in constant conflict with local tribes.
Singh also claims he was asked by the security forces to testify against Naxalites to make all the charges against him go away. Now that he is out of jail, despite family pressure, he claims his resolve for fighting for a legislation to protect journalists in Chattisgarh has only become stronger.
Here’s Prabhat’s story of the media blackout in Bastar.
Video Editor: Sandeep Suman
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