Ranchi: Jharkhand Police briefly detained senior journalist Aman Chopra and questioned him before registering an FIR over his coverage of the ongoing student agitation, Chopra alleged. He also claimed that several other journalists covering the protests and the march towards the Jharkhand Assembly were detained and questioned by police, India Today reported.
Chopra accused the Hemant Soren government of attempting to restrict journalists from reporting on the agitation, alleging that the FIR was linked to his work as a journalist.
The confrontation intensified when protesting aspirants marched from the Old Assembly towards the New Assembly. After several police barricades were breached, security forces used water cannons and later resorted to lathi charge, with some protesters reportedly injured.
Student leader Devendra Nath Mahto, who has been on a nine-day hunger strike, joined the march after arriving in an ambulance and was later carried on a stretcher.
The escalation followed failed talks between the government and student groups. Jharkhand Minister Deepika Pandey Singh said the government had accepted nearly all demands within its authority and was prepared to allow a judicially monitored investigation into the alleged examination irregularities.
However, cancellation of the JSSC-CGL examination remains a major point of contention. The government maintains that it cannot independently cancel the examination because the matter is subject to judicial directives.
Despite repeated negotiations, protesting aspirants continue to demand stronger action over alleged irregularities in JPSC and JSSC examinations, keeping the agitation alive.