Punjab & Haryana HC grants interim bail to Times Now reporter. Editors Guild says FIR lodged with ‘undue haste’
Journalist Bhawana Kishore was arrested Friday for allegedly knocking down a Dalit woman with her car and verbally abusing her. She was booked under various IPC sections and the SC/ST Act
New Delhi: The Punjab and Haryana High Court Saturday granted interim bail to Times Now reporter Bhawana Kishore, a day after she was arrested for allegedly knocking down a Dalit woman with her car and verbally abusing her.
During a special hearing Saturday evening, Justice Augustine George Masih granted Kishore interim bail till Monday, when her plea for regular bail will be heard. She had been remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody by a Ludhiana court earlier in the day.
On Friday, the Ludhiana Commissionerate had in a press statement said that the reporter, along with one Mrityunjay Kumar and driver Parminder Singh, was arrested for “hitting a woman with a speeding car, resulting in an injury on her right hand and also using derogatory language”.
The statement mentioned that the complainant, Gagan, a Dalit woman, was on her way to attend the inauguration of a mohalla clinic, when a speeding Innova car hit her, causing an injury on her right hand, while her phone also fell and broke.
The woman had alleged that the passengers (Kishore and Kumar) deboarded from the car and entered into a clash with her and used derogatory words even against her caste.
An FIR was registered against the three under sections IPC sections 279 (rash driving), 337 (hurting any person by acting rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 427 (commits mischief and thereby causes loss or damage), as well as sections 3 and 4 of the SC/ST Act at a Ludhiana police station.
Earlier in the day, the Editors Guild of India Saturday voiced its concern over Kishore’s detention and had demanded her immediate release. The Guild said in a statement that Kishore was taken away in a car by a male police officer, without the presence of women personnel, which is against well-established procedures.
The FIR registered against the reporter at a Ludhiana police station “appears excessive and with undue haste”, the Guild further said.
The Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC), the National Union of Journalists (India) and the Press Club of India (PCI) have also condemned the arrest of the reporter, her cameraperson and their car’s driver. The PCI even called it a “blatant attack on the rights of a journalist”.
The National Commission for Women (NCW) chief Rekha Sharma too said Saturday that she had sought a detailed report of the incident by writing to the Punjab Director General of Police (DGP). She added that she was in touch with the DGP and is following up on the matter with Ludhiana Police.
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