Manipur: Mainland journalist assaulted at DIPR Auditorium, accused arrested

In what could be considered as a successive attack against media persons, a mainland journalist from Delhi was assaulted at DIPR Auditorium at Imphal on Wednesday.

The journalist who was working with the “Aaj Tak” got mandhandled by a self-proclaimed BJP worker at DIPR auditorium, alleging him of spreading fake news to national media houses.

The arrested person has been identified as Sana Meitram, a self proclaimed BJP worker. He is presently under the custody of City Police, Imphal West.

As per witness, the accused – Sana Meitram entered inside the DIPR Auditorium and blamed Akshay Dongrey, the Aaj Tak reporter and his videographer colleague - Abhishek for spreading fake news to National Media. He also threatened to get them arrested for the same reason. He called up somebody whom he referred to as the CM of Manipur to tell him to send Quick Response Team and arrest the non-local journalists from Delhi.

The accused left the auditorium and locked the main door from outside. After 5 minutes or so, he came back with a bunch of keys and lock, thereby tearing down the wifi-routers and cables apart and threw it on the ground from the first floor. He came back quickly with the bunch of keys, dragged Akshay and assaulted him on the temple with the lock.

The accused also assaulted a woman reporter called Shalini of HY News when she tried to stop the accused from attacking Akshay further.

A team of journalists held a meeting with the CM in this regard. CM ordered SP Imphal West to arrest the culprit and give him befitting punishment. He also ordered to keep security personnel at the DIPR to check non-professionals from entering the DIPR and for security reasons. An FIR has been lodged at the City Police in this regard.

The accused was also booked under NIA recently during 2022 Manipur Vidhan Sabha Election for threatening some residents with guns. So far no one knows the reason behind the attack on the journalist.

There were many instances of attacks on media persons from the mainland who came to the state for ground reporting. Earlier, India Today NE Bureau Deputy Editor, Afrida Hussain was also attacked in her hotel at Imphal for an alleged one-sided news report by the Meitei mobs. Many such incidents have also been reported in the State wherein journalists from mainland India were sent back from Imphal airport when they came for reporting in Manipur hill areas. Al Jazeera reporters were also sent back from Imphal airport. The news stories of 'East Mojo' on the violent sitiation had also been take down after receiving several threats from the valley people.