Journalist who went to cover story about BJP MLA gets stripped by cops

In a post that has gone viral, a group of men, including a journalist and theatre artist, were seen naked inside a police station in Madhya Pradesh.

They stood with their hands clasped in front of them against the wall.

As indicated in the photo, a journalist and YouTuber from the area claimed he was abused, beaten up, and made to strip by police when he covered a protest against a local BJP legislator.

Apparently, the incident took place on Saturday in Madhya Pradesh's Sidhi district when the journalist was covering a protest against the arrest of theatre artist Neeraj Kunder for allegedly making unflattering comments about BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla Shukla and his son Kedar Guru Dutt Shukla using a fake Facebook profile.

According to Kanishka Tiwari, the journalist, he and his camera person were arrested for trespassing and disturbing the peace, among other charges.

The police asked him, "Why are you running stories against the MLA?"

Among others in the picture, Mr Tiwari spent 18 hours in police custody. "The police took us into custody at around 8 pm on April 2 and released us at 6 pm on April 3," Mr Tiwari alleged.

One protestor claims that several social workers and theatre artists protested the arrest of Mr Kunder but were beaten up by the police when they raised slogans against the state's BJP government.

He claimed the photo had been taken by the head of the police station, Abhishek Singh Parihar, who, Mr Tiwari claimed, had threatened us to parade naked in the city if the story was published. The police made the post viral.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the Chief Minister, has taken note of the matter and has asked for enforcement action against the guilty police officers.