Amit Sharma

Journalist

Uttar Pradesh

HRDA has issued an urgent appeal to the National Human Rights Commission of India on June 18, 2019 regarding the brutal physical assault, cruel and inhuman treatment of a TV journalist and human rights defender Amit Sharma during the reporting of derailment of a goods train in Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh.

On June 11, 2019 TV reporter Mr. Sharma was covering the train accident that took place near Dhimanpura gate of Shamli city in Uttar Pradesh in which two wagons of a goods train got derailed. A unit of the GRP including GRP Shamli’s station house officer (SHO) Mr. Rakesh Kumar Upadhyay and a contingent of local journalists were present at the site. Some of the police personnel were dressed in civil clothes. SHO Rakesh Upadhyay and constable Sanjay Panwar objected to Mr. Sharma’s presence at the derailment site. The policemen started thrashing Mr. Sharma when he tried to film the incident for news coverage. They were repeatedly slapping and punching the journalist. They dragged him all the way to the local GRP station. They also abused him and locked him up. Sharma also claimed that he was stripped by the cops and GRP Shamli’s SHO Rakesh Kumar Upadhyay urinated in his mouth. Sharma was bailed out by two fellow journalists on June 12, 2019. After a protest by the local journalists, the police registered a case against the four personnel, including the SHO Rakesh Kumar Upadhyay on June 12, 2019.

HRDA has prayed immediate and transparent investigation along with immediate actions on the perpetrators.