Journalist arrested in Jharkhand; faces same FIR as top Maoist leader
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Patna: Police in Jharkhand arrested independent journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh on charges under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) as well as the Indian Penal Code (IPC), The Wire reported.
His family reportedly said Saraikela Kharsawan district police knocked on Kumar Singh's house in Ramgarh at 5:25 in the morning on July 17, before searching the place for over nine hours.
Police searched in the rice and flour to see if there were any suspicious things, Singh's wife Ipsa Shatakshi reportedly said.
Shatakshi alleged that police didn't disclose about the arrest warrant until only five minutes before the arrest, despite searching the house for hours.
The police seized from Kumar Singh's home a bed sheet, a nine-page notebook, a tax invoice for a motorcycle, two mobile phones, one hard-disk, two laptops and the retail invoice of a car.
A few hours into searching the house in the presence of family members, there came a call and thereafter police sent the family members outside the house before locking the door on the inside, Shatakshi claimed.
She said that police searched the house this way around half an hour.
Kumar Singh was arrested based on FIR no 67/21 of the Kandra police station, according to the warrant.
FIR no 67/21 is the same FIR under which Prashanth Bose (alias Kishan Da), one of the top leaders of the CPI (Maoists); his wife, Sheela Marandi; Gurucharan Bodra; Raju Tudu (alias Nikhil, Bapu); Krishna Bahangda (alias Heven); and Birendra Hansda (alias Jitendra) were arrested in November, 2021, The Wire reported.
As they were wanted in a variety of cases, the police would not reveal any specific cases on which they were arrested.
The Wire said that when it searched for the FIR online, there came the response that 'the case is sensitive", alongside being denied access.
Prashanth Bose, an accused in the murder of MP Sunil Mahto and Ramesh Singh Munda 15 years ago, is known to be a top Maoist leader who had operated in the Saranda forests in Jharkhand.
Kumar Singh reportedly is facing all sections, including those of the UAPA slapped on Bose and other accused.
