Congress condemns arrest of journalist Vinod Verma
The Congress party condemned the arrest of the journalist and tweeted: "We condemn this attack on democracy where journalist #VinodVerma is being targeted to protect Chhattisgarh minister."
The Chattisgarh police has said the CDs recovered from journalist Vinod Verma, who was arrested on Friday morning allegedly for extortion, have objectionable contents which goes against the IT act, media reports said.
Verma was working on an investigative story on the Chhattisgarh government.
According to the police, Verma was blackmailing the complainant by giving a threat that he will duplicate the CDs and distribute among people.
The complaint was lodged on Thursday afternoon.
Around 500 CDs, several laptops and pen drives have been recovered by the police from Verma's house.
The police said they had reached Verma's house by tracking the location on the basis of the phone calls the accused made to the complainant.
Prakash Bajaj, a CD manufacturer, has confessed to the police that the CDs were made by him.
Verma was arrested at 3 a.m. on Friday.
The accused was picked for questioning in Ghaziabad, where he used to stay, and later arrested in Raipur on Friday early morning.
Verma is the digital editor at Amar Ujala and also a member of Editors Guild of India.
He has earlier worked with BBC.
The Chhattisgarh government has claimed that Verma was working with the opposition party, the Congress, to malign the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Image: Facebook profile of Vinod Verma
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