By Mohd. Rehan Ansari, TwoCircles.net,
Mumbai: “Akela, you are not alone. We all the Journalists in Maharashtra are with you,” a group of journalists yelled loud and clear on Thursday here in the Marathi Patrakar Sangh in Mumbai. They were protesting against the arrest of a senior crime reporter allegedly under the Official Secret Act.
Tarakant Dwivedi @ Akela, a senior crime reporter working with MiD-DAY in Mumbai has been arrested under Official Secret Act for publishing a story in June 2010. The story was about the new arms of Railway police getting rotten during rain. Akela then was working for Mumbai Mirror, a leading tabloid of the city.
Journalists in Mumbai marching towards Mantralaya for the release of AKELA, senior crime reporter arrested on OSA.
Crime Journalists Association, TV Journalists Association, Marathi Patrakar Sangh, Marathi Patrakar Parishad and representatives of some other journalists associations got together in Press Club Mumbai today.
A senior journalist addressed the gathering and said, “This is a dangerous precedent and will prevent us from any kind of investigative journalism, but the case of Akela is different and confused Railway Police and Mumbai Police are passing the buck at each other and we will not let them misguide us.”
President of Crime Journalists Association and other senior journalists talked to state Home Minister RR Patil and he ordered an enquiry into the incident but Journalists are not satisfied with it.
Meanwhile, there are lots of confusions about his arrest, Some say the name of Akela is not mentioned in FIR, some others say he has been arrested for trespassing a Railway property.
However, Journalists gathered in the Press Club and finally decided to meet RR Patil, Home Minister and demanded the action against the erring officers and they marched from Press Club to Mantralaya to press for their demand.