Madhya Pradesh Police strip artists, journalists, in police station; action draws flack

Kanishka Tiwari, the journalist, claimed he and his camera person were arrested and charged with several sections, including trespassing and disturbance of public peace. "Why are you running stories against the MLA?" he was allegedly asked by the police.

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Apr 08, 2022 06:10
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Madhya Pradesh Police strip artists, journalists, in police station; action draws flack

Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh police have come under sharp criticism for stripping some people including the reports and artists down to their underpants inside the police station in Sidhi district of the state.

A picture has gone viral where several men could be seen standing only in their underpants inside the police station as the reports said that the police forced them to do so.

According to the reports, one of them is a local journalist who runs a YouTube channel and later claimed that the police forced them to remove their clothes when the artists and some media persons had gone to cover a protest against a local BJP MLA.

The incident allegedly happened on Saturday when the journalist went to cover the protest against the arrest of theatre artist Neeraj Kunder for making alleged indecent remarks against BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla and his son Guru Dutt Shukla using a fake Facebook profile.

Kanishka Tiwari, the journalist, claimed he and his camera person were arrested and charged with several sections, including trespassing and disturbance of public peace. "Why are you running stories against the MLA?" he was allegedly asked by the police.

Tiwari claimed he, along with others in the picture, was kept in police custody for 18 hours. "The police took us into custody at around 8 pm on April 2 and released us at 6 pm on April 3," Tiwari alleged.

Several social workers and theatre artists protested the arrest of Kunder but they were beaten up by the police when they raised slogans against the BJP government in the state, claimed a protestor.

The photo, Tiwari claimed, was clicked by the in-charge of the police station, Abhishek Singh Parihar, who, he said, "threatened us to parade naked in the city if we run the story. The police made the post viral. This is a violation of our human rights."

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken note of the incident and has asked for strict action against the guilty police officers.