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The final report in a POCSO Act case against Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar’s managing editor Sudhir Agarwal, national editor LP Pant, and its four other journalists has termed the charges false. The case pertains to the paper’s coverage of a case in which it reportedly included identifiers related to the minor victim in September last year.
While Bikaner additional SP and investigating officer Deepak Kumar Sharma told Newslaundry that the police has found the case to be “false” and a report has been submitted to a special court for POCSO cases in Bikaner, Sushil, the complainant in the case, has filed a protest petition, questioning the police investigation.
A final report is filed by the police when it fails to obtain evidence or clues related to the case.
The FIR was registered at the Sadar police station in Bikaner on May 4, under IPC section 228-A (revealing identity of sexual abuse victim), section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act (barring police from disclosing identity of a child) and section 23 of the POCSO Act (disclosure of identity). It named Agarwal, Pant, its Bikaner bureau chief Naveen Sharma, editors Piyush Mishra and Mukesh Mathur, and reporter Manmohan Agarwal.
On September 6 last year, the news daily reported that a family accused a youth of abducting a minor in 2022 and while the case was being heard in a special POCSO court, they allegedly killed the youth and his brother. The report mentioned the village of the girl and the identity of her brother, accused in the double murder case. It retained similar identifiers in a follow-up story.
Dainik Bhaskar national editor Pant told Newslaundry that it was a “human error” and a “clarification” was issued by the newspaper.
Reportage on complainant’s spouse Govardhan Singh
About a month after Sushil filed the POCSO cases against Dainik Bhaskar staffers in Bikaner, the newspaper published a series of reports on her spouse and advocate Govardhan Singh.
The reports were about the alleged “lewd photos of 14 women” in his laptop and how he “extorted” on the basis of fake videos. There are reportedly more than 40 cases against him in Rajasthan, filed between 1999 and 2022, and mostly related to alleged extortion and blackmail, a police official told Newslaundry.
Notably, Singh was earlier suspended from the Bar Council of Rajasthan, according to a council document. Singh, who had enrolled with the BCR in 2016, told Newslaundry that the council took action against him in 2022 and that the Bar Council of India subsequently stayed the order of the BCR.
On July 3, Sushil filed another FIR alleging that Dainik Bhaskar published critical reports with the intention to “besmirch her family and husband’s image”. She further alleged that its editors had tried to reach a compromise on the earlier complaint.
Meanwhile, a police official said that Sushil filed the cases against Dainik Bhaskar on the directives of Singh.
The second FIR was filed under IPC section 195-A (whoever threatens another with any injury to his person, reputation or property or to the person or reputation of any one in whom that person is interested) against the same five journalists and managing editor Agarwal.
Pant denied the allegation of approaching Sushil or Singh. He told Newslaundry: “There is no question of a compromise.”
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Update at 12:40 pm on July 6: The report has been updated with the details about Govardhan Singh’s suspension from the Bar Council of Rajasthan.
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