Pushp Sharma has been arrested twice in two separate cases, including for ‘fabricating’ a ministry’s RTI reply. Sharma has claimed that both were false cases.
New Delhi: The journalist behind the Cobrapost expose has two criminal cases registered against him, including one accusing him of carrying out fake sting operations.
Pushp Sharma, who claims to be an investigative journalist, is behind the expose, codenamed ‘Operation 136’, which has accused several media groups of striking business deals to promote the Hindutva agenda of the BJP and help polarise voters in the run up to the 2019 elections.
Sharma was arrested twice by the Delhi police — once in 2009 and again in 2016.
In 2009, he was held for carrying out a ‘fraudulent’ sting operation to allegedly extort money from a police officer, while in 2016, he was arrested for allegedly fabricating an RTI response from the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH).
In both cases, the trial is yet to begin.
ThePrint reached out to Sharma several times and left messages but he did not respond to the requests for comment.
In a blog post on cobrapost.com, however, Sharma describes himself as the victim of a “witch-hunt”.
“As it often happens, when your stories hurt certain interests, or powerful individuals, it is you who are either hounded or witch-hunted both by the establishment and by the media at large. I am no exception to this phenomenon (sic),” wrote Sharma.
Sharma, who says he is an alumnus of IIM-Bangalore, says the evidence was fabricated in both cases against him.
Asked about the controversial past of Sharma and Cobrapost’s association with him, Aniruddha Bahal, founder and editor-in-chief of Cobrapost.com, told ThePrint: “We ourselves had put out the story when we did the first part. They are both cases of malicious prosecution. The journalist was employed by several media houses post his 2009 arrest and all reached the same conclusion. In any case it is the conduct of the people he interacted with during the course of Operation 136 that is the issue here.”
‘A compromise that never was’
Police allege that Sharma would fake road accidents and fraudulently carry out sting operations to extort money from police officers. He had allegedly built a whole library of “stings” on police and government officials, to either extort money from them or sell them to media houses.
“Sharma along with his associate, Pankaj Kumar, would fake road accidents. In one such instance, Kumar posed as the complainant alleging that his car was hit from behind by a motorcycle driven by Sharma. The men then called the police and as soon as they arrived, they pretended to have reached a compromise,” an officer explained.
“After reaching a ‘compromise,’ Sharma asked the head constable present there to give him change for Rs 500 so that he could use it to pay Kumar for the damages. The head constable, oblivious that he was being recorded, did as he was asked,” the officer said.
“After a couple of days, Sharma then called the head constable demanding money. Sharma told the officer that he had a clip of him taking money and threatened that it would be aired on TV channels. It was after the officer reported the matter to his seniors that an FIR was registered,” he alleged.
Sharma was arrested on 17 November 2009 after a trap was laid by the Delhi Police. The head constable called him to a location in South Delhi asking him to hand over the tape of the sting in exchange for the money. Sharma was arrested, while allegedly accepting cash from the head constable.
A statement issued by then Deputy Commissioner of Police, South, on 22 November 2009, also says that Sharma and his associate confessed that they had conducted several similar sting operations to extort money in the past.
“The accused disclosed that in the past he has conducted several of similar sting operations. So far two police officials including one head constable and one sub inspector were his target. The same is being investigated,” the statement said.
‘Fabricated RTI reply’
In the second criminal case against him, lodged in 2016, Sharma was arrested on charges of cheating, forgery and promoting enmity between different groups. This was after he allegedly fabricated an RTI response from AYUSH ministry, claiming that the Centre was discriminating against Muslims and denying them jobs as yoga trainers in the ministry.
Sharma at that time was a journalist with the Milli Gazette and quoted the allegedly fabricated RTI in his story that was later challenged by the ministry.
“He had been enquiring about Muslim teachers and trainers recruited by the ministry for foreign assignments during the World Yoga Day last year, to which he claimed that the ministry responded writing that they don’t recruit Muslims. The ministry then filed a formal complaint with the Delhi Police asking them to probe the alleged ‘fake’ RTI query,” a police officer said.