Bengal govt lodges FIR against reporters for Dhulagarh riots coverage, claims Zee News editor

In the social media post, Chaudhary said that Zee News's reporter Pooja Mehta and cameraperson Tanmay Mukherjee, who covered the incident from ground zero at Dhulagarh area in Bengal's Howrah district, were named in the FIR.

"Just to inform all of you Mamta Banerjee Govt has filed an FIR against me and Zee News reporter Pooja Mehta and cameraperson Tanmay Mukherjee for covering Dhulagarh Riots on Zee News," Sudhir Chaudhary wrote on his Facebook page.

According to reports, the FIR has been lodged under non-bailable IPC section 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony).

Earlier on Dec 12, people of two communities were engaged in a clash with each other at a village in West Bengal's Dhulagarh, barely 28 km from state capital Kolkata, over a religious procession to mark the birth anniversary of Holy Prophet.

The violence lasted for two more days at the area, which triggered tension at the village, locals alleged.

A heavy police force along with Rapid Action Force (RAF) were deployed in the area, CrPC section 144 was imposed and few police pickets were set up at the village to control the situation.

Besides arresting at least 65 persons allegedly creating violence, police restricted all types of movements there and prevented the delegations of opposition parties from entering Dhulagarh to maintain law and order, according to reports.

Following the violence, SP of Howrah (Rural division), Sabyasachi Raman Mishra, was reportedly replaced by another IPS officer Sumit Kumar.

Days after the riot took place, 25-year-old reporter of Zee News, Pooja Mehta, and her cameraperson, Tanmay Mukherjee, went to Dhulagarh and produced several ground reports from the scene.

Image: TV grab of Zee News reporter Pooja Mehta covering ground reports from Dhulagarh

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)