From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: The editor-in-chief of News Live TV channel, whose journalists had recorded the molestation of a hapless girl on a Guwahati street on the night of July 9 last, resigned from his post on Tuesday expressing apprehensions that an ‘impartial probe’ into the alleged role of the channel related to the dastardly episode of crime may not take place and management of the TV channel may be put under pressure to remove him.
Addressing a press conference here, Atanu Bhuyan, the editor-in-chief said he had decided to quit as he apprehended that the police would fail to conduct an impartial inquiry into the incident after the chief minister Tarun Gogoi spoke out against the reporter of the channel, who had recorded crime in which a mob was stripping and molesting a girl on the streets of Guwahati.
“The chief minister’s statement made on Monday held the reporter of my channel guilty of not calling the police when he reached the crime scene.
After such an indication against the reporter from the CM himself, I doubt that an impartial probe would take place,” Bhuyan said.
He pointed that the reporter, who has already resigned from the channel, was called for a four-hour-long questioning by the police on Monday, immediately after the Chief Minister’s statement.
“I had refrained from making any statement on the issue as I wanted an impartial probe. But after the Chief Minister’s near indictment of my reporter, I have decided to quit,” he added.
Defending Neog, he said, “It was only because of the footage recorded by him that 12 of the culprits have been arrested.” Neog has already resigned from the organisation on July 15 following allegations by RTI activist Akhil Gogoi that he had instigated the molestation on July 9.
Bhuyan also pointed that the CMD of the channel, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, is the wife of State’s Cabinet minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sharma and the government may use its machinery to pressurize Dr Sharma to ask his wife to sack the editor-in-chief.
“There is such a possibility and I want to quit before being shown the door,” he said.
Bhuyan will, however, continue to remain a member of the board of directors of the channel.
He , however, defended his reporter and cameraperson for recording the molestation episode saying it was the video footage that helped the police in arresting the culprits.
He, however, admitted that the channel lapsed on a few counts, like revealing the name of the victim in the first telecast and repeatedly playing the molestation tape, albeit edited and morphed.
Akhil Gogoi claimed that the molestation of the 17-year-old girl after a mob was institgated may have been part of a greater conspiracy to tarnish the image of the Chief Minister and destabilise the government.
City SSP Apurba Jiban Baruah, who had termed the class XI student’s ordeal as a stray incident that was hyped by the national media, has been transferred to Dibrug.
A three-member team of senior editors will meanwhile visit Guwahati to look into allegations about the role of mediapersons in the coverage of the molestation case.
Meanwhile, police have so far arrested 12 persons in connection with the molestation case while search is still on for the prime accused Amarjyoti Kalita. (With inputs from PTI)