Odisha Woman Journalist One Of Two Detained In Tripura

Bhubaneswar: One of the two women journalists who were detained by Assam Police on Sunday is from Odisha. The police said Samriddhi K Sakunia, 21 hails from Jharsuguda, while Swarna Jha, 24, is from West Delhi’s Rohini.

The duo was booked in Tripura for criminal conspiracy and other charges and detained by the police in Karimganj district in Assam on Sunday.

They had checked out of a hotel in Dharmanagar in Tripura after covering incidents related to the communal violence in the State in retaliation to the attacks on Hindus in adjoining Bangladesh in October.

Although both claim to be working for HW News Network, police said they did not have proper identity cards to show their association with a media house. The hostel records showed their status as students and their purpose of visit ‘work.’

The two were booked after Kanchan Das, a VHP supporter lodged an FIR at the Fatikroy police station in North Tripura district. The Indian Penal Code Sections slapped against them pertain to criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace.

Meanwhile, the Editors Guild of India (EGI) and Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) on Sunday condemned the detention of the two journalists by the Assam Police. 

Police officials in both the states have confirmed that Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha, journalists with HW News Network, who went to Tripura to write on the recent communal incidents there, were detained by the Assam Police at Karimganj’s Neelam Bazar, close to the border between the two states on Sunday.