Three women journalists have alleged sexual harassment by police personnel while covering a protest against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on October 3. The complaints were received by the New Delhi district police following the alleged incidents, during which police personnel were deployed to maintain law and order at the protest, according to a PTI report.
The Crime Branch will examine the allegations and record statements of the complainants and other people concerned as part of the enquiry, an officer told PTI.
On Saturday, one of the women journalists told PTI that an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) sexually assaulted her while she was covering the protest. According to the journalist, police personnel were detaining protesters and there were no women police personnel present at the spot. She alleged that she questioned ACP Vivek Bhagat of the Delhi Police about the absence of women personnel, following which he sexually assaulted her and pushed her back.
The journalist also claimed that she and others later went to a police station to lodge an FIR, but alleged that no action had been taken so far.
The Delhi Police, in a post on X, said the complaints had been transferred to the Crime Branch for a fair and impartial enquiry.
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Press Council Of India Reacts
The Press Council of India has expressed “shock and dismay” over the alleged treatment of journalists covering the protest and urged the Delhi Police to act immediately on the complaint.
“Behaviour of this kind cannot be normalised in a democracy. Journalists must be allowed to work freely, without fear, and document those who gather to raise various issues. That this is not being allowed even at the heart of the national capital does not bode well for the trajectory of media freedom in India,” it said in a statement.
“The Delhi Police must immediately act on the female journalist's complaint and ensure that it gives media persons the space to do their jobs without having to face aggression and threats,” it added.
Earlier on Saturday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi demanded answers from Union Home Minister Amit Shah over allegations of misconduct with women by Delhi Police personnel during the protest.
Gandhi wrote in a post on X that since the Delhi Police comes under the Ministry of Home Affairs, Shah must answer. “A female journalist has accused a police officer of misconduct at Jantar Mantar. For hours, hundreds of journalists have been sitting there with just one demand: that an FIR be registered. Isn't that the police's basic duty? They haven't even done that,” he said in a post in Hindi.
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