From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Assam police on Friday arrested the TV reporter Gaurav Jyoti Neog who had covered July 9 night girl’s molestation episode on a Guwahati street for a local TV channel here .
Police informed that he was arrested by police from Bhangagarh police station in the city where the molestation case was registered.
The TV journalist who had already resigned from the TV channel in the face of allegation that he was instigating the crime on the street, was booked under Sections 294/509/34 of the IPC.
Earier, on Thursday, Gauhati High Court had rejected the TV reporter’s petition for anticipatory bail.
He wasearlier interrogated by the city police for five continuous hours after Assam CM, Tarun Gogoi had blamed him before the media of indulging in unethical journalism for failing to inform the police promtly when the crime was unfolding before his eyes, which has also led to a nationwide debate on role of media at a time of reporting a crime. .
A Team Anna member and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi had levelled the allegation that Gaurav Jyoti Neog was infact instigating the crime, not just covering the shameful episode of molestation of a hapless girl.
The RTI activist also submitted copies of the video footage before Assam police DGP to substatiate his charge against the TV reporter.
Meanwhile, the Gauhati High Court has rejected the anticipatory bail petition of the reporter of a news channel who allegedly shot the video of the molestation of a girl here on July 9.
The arrest came a day after the Guwahati High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea.
“Neog has been arrested and will be produced in the court on Saturday,” newly appointed Senior Superintendent of Police of Guwahati Ananda Prakash Tiwari told PTI.
Justice C R Sarma on Thursday rejected the petition of Gaurav Jyoti Neog of News Live channel and has been accused by Team Anna member Akhil Gogoi of orchestrating the incident.
Neog was questioned by police. The bench also directed police to submit the case diary on the incident on July 30.
Neog had resigned from the channel earlier this week. Neog’s boss and Editor-in-Chief Atanu Bhuyan had also resigned from his post.
The journalist along with his cameraman, had captured the entire incident on camera.
A Special Investigation Team has already decided to send the raw footage of the video for a forensic test.
Two other accused, including the main accused, are still at large, while three more are yet to be identified based on the video footage of the incident.
Meanwhile, the Assam government has formed a high-level task force to study the rising trend of crime against women and suggest measures for curbing them.
The four-member task force, to be headed by Additional DGP (CID) Mukesh Sahay, would also visit states and union territories where crime against women were minimal to study policing and administrative measures, official sources said.
It has been given a month’s time to file a comprehensive report. (With inputs from Agencies)