The group has journalists from across districts and they all routinely post news and updates. He said he clicked a photograph of their house to go with his story and shared it on a WhatsApp group with a brief about the incident. He said he himself had seen the photograph on Facebook and WhatsApp groups before he interviewed Shafi’s family. He said that while the police are accusing him of spreading the pictures of the desecrated Quran on social media, the image had begun to go viral well before the story was published. Masked assailants had hacked Karopady to death on the premises of Buntwal taluk’s gram panchayat office. Thumbay routinely reports on communal violence by extremist groups in Bantwal, with the feather in his hat being his investigation into the murder of Congress leader Abdul Jaleel Karopady this April. He has been transferred to the Mangalore bureau of the newspaper owing to security concerns. A journalist for six years now, he said the newspaper has been extremely supportive but he’s afraid that there is a sinister plot behind this episode and his arrest. “The time is not conducive for journalistic work,” he rued. I never knew reporting a story could lead to such charges,” he exclaimed. Newslaundry spoke to Thumbay, who said he has never been this scared in his life. Recommending strict action against the paper, the notice forthrightly states that Vartha Bharati is creating communal tension and inciting communal violence. Written in Kannada and sent by the state’s revenue department, it reads: “The story carried by the newspaper alleging that the Bantwal police had desecrated the Holy Quran on September 3 is false and the paper has made false allegations against the police by creating fake witnesses and fabricating pictures.” On September 13, the newspaper was served the show-cause notice. The editor, Abdussalam Puthige, has not been arrested but is being investigated. These sections pertain to creating enmity between different groups and publishing reports containing rumours or alarming news with the intent to create enmity and hatred on the grounds of religion. He was granted bail after three days behind bars.Īlso, the police charged Thumbay and the newspaper’s chief editor under Sections 153A and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code. He was sent to jail after the Bantwal court rejected his interim bail plea. When the family objected to it, he responded sarcastically and asked if it preaches them to kill.Īs Newslaundry reported, the Bantwal police arrested the reporter four days after the story was published.
The plaint says the sub-inspector opened the Quran and slammed it on the floor. Her complaint, of which Newslaundry has a copy, states that sub-inspector AK Rakshit Gowda and his team got into their house with a search warrant and began throwing their clothes and books on the floor.
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