A journalist who runs a web portal and a technical assistant have been arrested by Chhattisgarh police following a complaint from two Congress MLAs who alleged that the duo published "misleading and baseless" information about them. Police said journalist Madhukar Dubey and technical assistant Avinash Palliwar were arrested Monday after Congress MLAs Brihaspat Singh and Kuldeep Juneja, in their complaint, alleged that the web portal zeroparty.in had published "misleading" information about them on October 24. Booked under different sections of the IPC including the charge of extortion, Dubey and Palliwar were produced in court following their arrest and have been sent to judicial custody for 14 days. Town Inspector Satyaprakash Tiwari of the Civil Lines police station in Raipur said the report was published by Dubey and circulated with Palliwar's aid, so both were arrested. Two separate FIRs were registered on complaints from the MLAs. Dubey and Palliwar were booked under IPC sections 384 (punishment for extortion), 189 (threat of injury to public servant), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 501 (1) (B) (printing or engraving matter known to be defamatory).
