Raipur journalist faces charges of ‘prostitution’, sent to jail

Sharma’s writings targeted the Congress government, using fictional or real names for its members including ministers and bureaucrats. During the BJP government in Chhattisgarh too, Sharma wrote a series of political satires under the name of Chokhelal.

After the complaint, India Writers portal was disabled.

Following Sharma’s arrest, police claimed they had found “objectionable content” on his phone, unrelated to the original arrest. On Monday, he was transferred to Bilaspur jail. His family said they had been “threatened” to not talk to the media, and not allowed to meet him.

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The charges Sharma is facing now are under Sections 67 A (punishment for publishing or transmitting material containing sexually explicit acts, etc., in electronic form) of the IT Act, 4 (punishment for living on the earnings of prostitution), and 5 (procuring, inducing or taking [person] for the sake of prostitution) of the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act (PITA).

Earlier, on Nishad’s complaint, Sharma was booked under IPC Sections 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 505 (1)(b) (making, publishing or circulating any statement, rumour or report) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enemity or hatred between classes).

In a press release, which carried no signatures, the Raipur police said Sharma was found to be “indulging in prostitution, blackmailing and obscene chats with both genders”. Police also claimed he had documents and phone recordings of “confidential nature” and “was ruining the name of journalists and journalism”.

In his last column before his arrest, Sharma had written about the much-talked-about but never confirmed Congress plan of changing its chief minister after two-and-a-half years as part of the deal reached between CM Bhupesh Singh Baghel and his rival T S Singh Deo. Earlier, Sharma’s articles using disguised names were seen as critical of people considered close to Baghel.

Incidentally, both the Chhattisgarh government and the state Congress have set up ‘fake news committees’. Neither raised any alert regarding Sharma’s writings.

Sharma started his career with local Hindi newspapers in 2006. He first launched a magazine called India Writers, and then the web portal around four years ago. Besides accusing Sharma of an “agenda”, Nishad called the language of his articles “obscene”. His specific complaint was to an article published on March 1 with the title “Wah Wah Khel Shuru Ho Gaya (Wow, the game has started)”. He was arrested the evening after.

BJP leader and former CM Raman Singh said: “Those who promised to bring a law to safeguard journalists are the ones targeting them over satirical articles.”