Shahjahanpur July 24: Journalists across Shahjahanpur staged a protest on Friday against the alleged illegal detention of reporters Prabhakar Mishra and Vivek Mishra by the police’s Special Operations Group (SOG).
The protest began at the Press Club, after which journalists marched to the Collectorate and submitted a memorandum to the district administration.
On the occasion, all correspondents moved to Vikas Bhavan, where Chief Development Officer (CDO) Utkarsh Dwivedi interacted with the correspondents. After this, Superintendent of Police (SP) Saurabh Dixit assured action within 24 hours.
The SP admitted that the SOG operation was based on incorrect intelligence and described the incident as a procedural lapse.
The two journalists alleged that they were detained for nearly three hours on July 23 while travelling to Powayan. SOG catched and mobile phones were seized.
police mistook them for suspects in connection with the black-flag protest against the Deputy Chief Minister’s convoy before releasing them following media intervention.
On the occasion all correspondent were demanded suspension of the SOG in-charge, a written apology, and safeguards against similar incidents involving journalists.
On the occasion Correspondents warned that they would intensify their agitation and boycott police-related coverage if no action was taken within the stipulated period.
Hundreds of journalists from across the district participated in the demonstration, expressing concern over press freedom and police conduct.
The demonstration witnessed participation from a large number of journalists and correspondents from across the district, including Balram Sharma, Kamal Singh, Ambuj Mishra, Ashish Tripathi, Vivek Saingar, Sajid Khan, Arif Siddiqui, Fayyaz Sagri, Anil Mishra, Ajay Yadav, Prem Shankar Gangwar, Shiv Kumar, Mahender Chawla, Hari Om Trivedi, Anand Sharma, Sushil Shukla, Sishant Shukla, Amit Saxena, Sanjay Srivastava, Arvind Tripathi, Raju Mishra, Santosh Upadhyay, Prabhakar Mishra, Adarsh Mishra, Pankaj Saxena, Shubham Pandey, Arvind Kanojia, Abhishek Chauhan, and Priyanshu Mishra.