UP journalist arrested after he clicked school children mopping floor

Agencies
September 9, 2019

Azamgarh, Sept 9: The Azamgarh District Magistrate on Monday ordered a probe into the arrest of a journalist allegedly after he took photographs of some children mopping the floor in their school.

The journalist was arrested on false charges of extortion and obstructing public servants from discharging their duty, alleged a fellow journalist Sudhir Singh, who, along with other journalists met District magistrate N P Singh to apprise him of the alleged illegal arrest.

"No injustice will be meted out to the journalist. We will look into the matter," said Azamgarh DM N P Singh.

Singh also ordered a probe into the matter.

Local journalist Santosh Jaiswal was arrested here last week on Friday after he took photographs of school children, mopping the floor and called up police to apprise them of the illegal practice by school authorities, said Sudhir Singh.

Journalist Singh said the police, responding to Jaiswal's call reached the school and took both Jaiswal and principal Radhey Shyam Yadav of the Oodpur primary school to the police station.

At the Phulpur police station, the school principal lodged a complaint against Jaiswal on the basis of which an FIR was registered against him and he was arrested, said Singh.

The FIR No 237, registered on September 6, 2019 against the journalist, quotes the school principal as saying that Jaiswal often visited the school and misbehaved with both male and female teachers and students and tried to persuade them to subscribe to the newspaper published by him.

Yadav said in the FIR that on the day of the incident Jaiswal came to the school and ordered some children to mop the floor to facilitate him take their photographs.

Yadav said he objected to his act, following which Jaiswal fled the school premises leaving his vehicle there and later demanded money from him.

Sudhir Singh, who works as a stringer for a New Delhi-based national news agency, refuted the charges against the arrested journalist, saying the local police nursed a grudge against him.

He said Jaiswal had in May this year posted on his Twitter handle a photograph of Phulpur Police Station House Officer Shivshankar Singh's SUV with tinted window and without number plate.

Responding to Jaiswal's post on Twitter, the police had said the photograph of the SHO's SUV was an old one and the vehicle had already been registered with the transport authorities and also gave its registration number, said Sudhir Singh.

But a local youth claimed that the registration number given by the SHO as that of his SUV was his motorcycle's number, said Sudhir Singh.

This prompted Jaiswal to publish a story in his newspaper about the whole episode, he said, adding the police nursed a grudge against the journalist since then.

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News Network
April 8,2020

Jamnagar, Apr 7: A 14-month-old baby boy, who had tested positive for coronavirus in Gujarat's Jamnagar district on April 5, died of multiple organ failure on Tuesday, said officials.

The toddler, son of a migrant labourer-couple having no recent travel history, died in the evening at a government hospital in Jamnagar, said an official release.

He was in a critical condition ever since he was admitted to the hospital, it said.

The boy, who tested positive for coronavirus two days ago, was as on ventilator support and eventually died due to multiple organ failure, said the release.

He becomes the youngest patient to succumb to COVID-19 in Gujarat, where the death toll has now gone up to 16.

The baby was the first and the only case of coronavirus infection so far in entire Jamnagar district and the youngest to be diagnosed with the disease in Gujarat.

Ever since he tested coronavirus positive, the authorities had been tracing the source of his infection.

His parents are from Uttar Pradesh and work as casual labourers in factories in the port city.

His parents, who have no travel history in the recent past, are asymptomatic (not showing symptoms) and kept under quarantine, officials said.

The locality where the couple resides in Dared village near Jamnagar city has been put under complete lockdown to check the spread of the virus, they said.

Gujarat has so far recorded 175 coronavirus positive cases and 16 fatalities.

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News Network
April 26,2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 26: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday urged media houses not to resort to layoffs and pay cuts while the whole community is facing the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chief Minister said the state government will also take necessary steps to test the media personnel in the state to ensure they have not contracted the deadly virus.

He also pointed out that the pandemic has severely impacted the media sector with many newspapers even reducing the number of pages.

"Journalists are among those who have been affected the most. Journalists on the field are also in danger. We have come to know about the reporters affected with coronavirus in other states. The government will take necessary precautions including testing to ensure that journalists don't contract the disease," Vijayan said.

He said the newspapers were not receiving advertisements these days because there are no social or public events resulting in less commercial activities in the society.

"I would like to urge the media houses not to engage in layoffs or salary cuts during this pandemic. Journalists are working shoulder to shoulder with health workers. During this pandemic, scribes are out in the field collecting news, despite the threat of disease and it was admirable," Vijayan said.

The chief minister said the government has asked the PRD to release the dues to various media houses.

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News Network
April 2,2020

New Delhi, Apr 2: With 437 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, the tally of COVID-19 positive cases in India shot up to 1,834 on Wednesday night.

The number of deaths in the country due to COVID-19 has risen to 41.

The total number of active cases in the country is 1,649. 143 persons have been cured and discharged from the hospitals. One person has migrated, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Earlier on Wednesday, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla urged all state governments and Union Territory administrations to ensure the lockdown measures issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs are strictly implemented.

"All the state governments/UT administrations are requested to strictly implement the lockdown measures issued by MHA in the exercise of the powers under Disaster Management Act, 2005 in letter and spirit," Bhalla said.

Prime Minister Modi had earlier announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.

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