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This is an archive article published on April 16, 2020

Politicians, activists slam journalist’s arrest

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said he had told Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray that the journalist should not be arrested.

ABP Majha journalist, ABP majha journalist arrested, ABP Majha row, ABP journalist arrested, coronavirus, coronavirus news, covid 19 tracker, covid 19 india tracker, coronavirus latest news, covid 19 india, coronavirus latest news, coronavirus india, coronavirus india news, coronavirus india live news, coronavirus in india, coronavirus in india latest news, coronavirus latest news in india, coronavirus cases, coronavirus cases in india, coronavirus lockdown, coronavirus india update, coronavirus india state wise, India news, Indian Express Thousands gathered near Bandra station in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon after rumours that trains were about to run. (Express photo: Zoya Lobo)

THE arrest of ABP Majha journalist Rahul Kulkarni has drawn fire from activists, journalists and even politicians in Maharashtra with most describing the action as “unwarranted” and “harsh”. Kulkarni secured bail on Thursday.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut said he had told Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray that the journalist should not be arrested. “I don’t know why he was arrested. My view is that he should not have been arrested,” Raut told The Indian Express.

In an editorial published in Saamana on Thursday, Raut instead blamed the railways for the chaos at Bandra. The editorial said even as there was speculation about whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lift the lockdown in the days preceding the announcement, the railways accepted bookings of 40 lakh people. “Why did the railways accept reservation after April 15? Therefore, the railway ministry is responsible for the chaos at Bandra station. Will Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis now demand the resignation of the railway minister,” Raut asked.

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Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan said though it seems the channel erred in putting out a speculative report, arresting the reporter was harsh. “At best, the channel should have been warned… Arresting the reporter was a harsh move. But at the same time, the channel should have carried a clarification in its 11 am news after the news at 9 am. I think, there was one wrong sentence in the 9 am news,” he said.

Chavan said there should be a thorough probe into who leaked the railways letter.

ABP Majha editor Rajeev Khandekar said, “There was no connection between our report and the chaos at Bandra station. If our report was responsible for the chaos, then it should have happened across Maharashtra. We immediately reported at 11 am that lockdown has not been lifted and train services are not being resumed.”

State BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhaye said, “The government is trying to hide its failure by targeting the journalist. There was no connection between his report and the chaos at Bandra station. Yet he was arrested.”

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“…Kulkarni was booked for the mayhem in Bandra. It is shocking. FIRs are being lodged against party workers and the media who are doing their job, which is unbelievable,” said senior BJP leader Vinod Tawde, addressing the media through video-conference.

“The gathering of migrants at Bandra station needs to be probed and those responsible should be exposed…,” he added. “More shocking is the failure of intelligence. How could such a massive crowd gather in an area which is in the neighbourhood of Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray,” he said.

(With inputs from Mumbai)

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More

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