Prabhjit Singh, Shahid Tantray and a woman

Journalists 

New Delhi

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on August 14, 2020 regarding the physical assault, sexual molestation and threats to murder three journalists who were reporting from northeast Delhi by a mob. Mr. Prabhjit Singh is a senior journalist with more than 25 years of experience; Mr. Shahid Tantray is a journalist and photo editor; they, along with the woman journalist currently work with Caravan magazine.

On August 11, 2020, Mr. Singh and others visited northeast Delhi’s North Ghonda neighborhood for a follow-up report on communal violence and physical and sexual assault of three women including a minor. A few men from the BJP objected to their taking photographs of the area, and on finding that one of them was Muslim called for more men. A mob of 50 men surrounded the three journalists in no time and attacked them. 

The mob detained Mr. Singh and Mr. Tantray, abused them on religious grounds, kicked, assaulted and strangulated them for over 90 minutes, deleted the contents of their memory cards and tried to break their cameras. Mr. Singh somehow contacted Caravan’s editor, following which a large police team reached the spot and took the journalists to the police station, followed by the mob.

When the woman journalist fell down while trying to flee the scene, she was sexually assaulted by men of all ages in the neighborhood, including one who claimed to be a BJP secretary before a policeman helped her reach the police station.

On August 13, 2020, the Bhajanpura police refused to register an FIR against the perpetrators. Mr. Sharma, the Bhajanpura SHO, told the journalists that the locals, accused of assaulting the journalists, had also filed a complaint and that the police would need to check both sides’ complaints before registering an FIR. The PRO of Delhi Police Commissioner’s office gave a written rejoinder to the Editor of the Caravan on August 13, 2020, saying Caravan journalists were taking photographs in the Subhash Nagar area without consent, leading to law and order problems and since a cross-complaint had been filed against the journalists, the police was conducting an investigation after which they would take action.