Times Now has claimed that its journalist Aakanksha Khajuria and video journalist Radha Krishna were attacked at the AAP office when they tried to approach party leader Durgesh Pathak to ask him about the allegations against him in an alleged foreign funding case.
The channel said Khajuria and Krishna had gone to hospital for a medical check-up and had also reached out to the police to complain about the alleged incident.
#WATCH - Moment When The #TimesNow Crew Was Attacked Inside AAP Office. #OperationBlackDollar #AAP #TimesNow pic.twitter.com/EvdpbkH8Ri
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 20, 2024
A video of the incident showed AAP’s chief media coordinator Vikas Yogi asking the Times Now team to not force its way inside the AAP office. “Some work is being carried out inside,” he was heard telling Khajuria on camera as she insisted that the media has a right to talk to a public representative. Yogi told the reporter to meet the AAP’s media team instead, but she said she wanted to meet Pathak.
“How can you force your way like this?... This is insolence,” said Yogi.
The camera angle swung upward, to the sky, after a security guard was seen nearing the frame. “Don’t touch the camera,” Khajuria is heard saying.
The channel posted a clip showing a man in a red t-shirt holding the camera, and another ostensibly shoving it, while it was pointed towards the sky in the hands of the video journalist.
“Vikas Yogi, AAP Chief Media Coordinator, heckles #TimesNow's team at AAP office. Delhi Police has reached the spot, but AAP workers are not allowing the police to enter. AAP workers misbehaved with #TimesNow's team when the team tried to question Durgesh Pathak in connection with #OperationBlackDollar,”’ the channel wrote on X, with a video showing its crew standing next to the Delhi Police officials outside the AAP office in Delhi, to claim that no one was being allowed inside.
AAP attacks Times Now crew!#TimesNow's reporter @aakaaanksha and VJ Radha Krishna have reached the hospital with Delhi police for a medical check-up.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 20, 2024
After proceeding with the MLC from the hospital, Delhi police will file the FIR or NCR as per the relevant sections... -… pic.twitter.com/qLrdGlYa95
Vikas Yogi, AAP Chief Media Coordinator, heckles #TimesNow's team at AAP office.
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 20, 2024
Delhi Police has reached the spot, but AAP workers are not allowing the police to enter.
AAP workers misbehaved with #TimesNow's team when the team tried to question Durgesh Pathak in connection… pic.twitter.com/9bkQpHzh4c
Group editor Navika Kumar said it was the “second time” the AAP had behaved in “this manner” with Times Now, after the “Sheesh Mahal” controversy. She said the reporter and the video journalist were “manhandled” and “slapped”, and that Kejriwal should “control” his media coordinators and “goons” at the AAP office.
Newslaundry could not confirm whether a formal complaint had been lodged.
This comes days after Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal filed a complaint alleging that chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar assaulted her at the CM’s house.
Correction at 1.55 pm on May 21: The earlier version of this report erroneously mentioned that the crew was trying to question Pathak about the excise policy case.
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