A murderous assault on a senior journalist by a ruling BJP leader in Patna and the controversial role of the police allegedly in favour of the attackers has sparked strong protests from the media community in Bihar, prompting them to seek chief minister Nitish Kumar’s intervention.
Amarnath Tewary, the Patna-based assistant editor with The Pioneer newspaper, received multiple injuries on his face, head, chest and legs when he was beaten up with iron rods by local BJP leader Madhu Verma, a resident of the same apartment block as Mr Tewary’s, her son Rituraj Verma, an executive with the Indus Bank, and a group of anti-social men on Friday, according to an FIR he lodged. Mr Tewary, who now seems to be out of danger following treatment, said on Sunday that he and his family were being threatened and the police were taking no action.
The assault, the second such incident with a Patna-based journalist working with a national English daily in five months, was apparently provoked by Mr Tewary’s recent protests against the alleged irregularities perpetrated for years by office bearers of the management association of his apartment block. Some of the marks of injury on Mr Tewary’s face being so close to his eyes, he was fortunate to have received no damage in his eyes.
“This is an utterly condemnable incident. Police officials who reached the spot after Tewary lodged a complaint took sides with the Vermas and even threatened Tewary and his family. We demand immediate arrest of the culprits,” said Arun Kumar Singh, general secretary of the Bihar Working Journalists’ Union (BWJU) and member of the Press Council of India (PCI) on Sunday. Some 20 senior journalists signed a memorandum addressed to the CM and sought his intervention to ensure punishment of the attackers.
Meanwhile, the BJP’s women’s wing reportedly threatened to stage a demonstration if Verma and her son were arrested.
While the police were yet to take any action, the BJP’s Arwal MLA Chittaranjan Singh visited Verma in her flat on Sunday evening. Sources said the police inaction was partly due to alleged pressures from local BJP MLA Arun Kumar Sinha.