Journalists in Haryana’s Hisar district are up in arms after police booked a colleague of theirs last week for defamation & trespassing, almost 2 months after he had reported that food grains were rotting at a govt warehouse in Uklana town.

The journalists met senior officers of the district administration seeking that the case be quashed, & that an First Information Report (FIR) be lodged against officers who “prepared a fake probe report” regarding the matter.

Hisar Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) (Headquarters) Ashok Kumar said the journalists raised concerns about the First Information Report (FIR) against their colleague Anoop Kundu. “I have assured them that no injustice will be done. We will ensure a thorough probe into the matter,” .

Police had registered a case against Kundu on the basis of a complaint filed by an official of the Haryana food civil supplies (HFCS) & consumer affairs departt. on Sept 8, in which he termed the news clip aired by the channel “as fake, alleging it was meant to defame the image of the departt. & its officials”. According to the complaint, senior officers of the departt. had found the wheat covered & undamaged in the warehouse.

Meanwhile, Kundu had in a letter to the Hisar deputy commissioner (DC) & superintendent of police (SP) stated that he had prepared a ground report on July 17 which was telecast by his channel on July 18. “The wheat had rotted because of rain. Even local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders had seen the rotten wheat in the warehouse. However, the officials have prepared a fake report even without recording my statement…My colleague Sajjan Kumar had submitted a complaint to the district administration on July 25 regarding threats by the departt. officials (after my) report but no action was taken,” the letter said.

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