SC relief for two female journalists booked for covering Tripura violence

The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to Tripura Police and stayed all proceedings against two female journalists who reported on alleged instances of communal violence in the northeastern state.

The court also granted the petitioners four weeks to file a counter-affidavit.

Two FIRs were registered against Samriddhi K Sakunia and Swarna Jha, based on a complaint by local Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists, at the Fatikroy police station in Unakoti district. The journalists, from the HW News Network, were booked under sections relating to spreading communal disharmony, committing insult with the intent of provoking breach of peace and criminal conspiracy.

The petitioners had challenged the police action by saying that they were only reporting the incident. They argued that the FIRs amount to “targeted harassment of press”.

They also asked for the immediate quashing of the FIRs and had sought a transfer of the complaints to Delhi citing threat to their lives in Tripura.

“We’ll issue a notice [to Tripura Police] seeking their response. There shall be a stay of all further proceedings pursuant to FIR No 39 registered in Tripura and FIR No 82. A counter-affidavit (by the petitioners) is to be filed within four weeks,” Justice DY Chandrachud said.

Chandrachud was part of the three-member bench hearing the matter; the other two were Justice Surya Kant and Justice Vikram Nath.

Earlier, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing on behalf of the journalists, argued: “The difficulty they faced is that they reported the news and an FIR was registered… and then a second FIR was registered saying that the report is wrong.”

Before their detention, HW News Network had released a statement on social media: “HW News Network Journalists Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha have been detained by Assam Police on their way to Silchar. Assam Police has said that they don’t have any case against our journalists but Tripura Police asked them to detain them.”

The Editors Guild of India had demanded the immediate release of the two journalists.