Journalist held under OSA for report on armoury

Journalists in the city on Thursday marched to the state government headquarters,demanding Akelas release and seeking action against the GRP

A journalist working for a local tabloid has been arrested by the railway police for allegedly trespassing on railway property and spying after he wrote how weapons bought after the 26/11 terror attack were exposed to monsoon rain as they were not stored properly.

Tarakant Dwivedi,who writes under the name Akela and works for Mid-Day,has been booked under the stringent Official Secrets Act,sparking outrage in the media and drawing strong condemnation from the Editors Guild of India.

Akelas report about the weapons lying in a Railway Protection Force armoury with a leaking roof at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus was published in June last year when he was working at Mumbai Mirror.

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He was called to the railway police station by the Government Railway Police on Tuesday to record his statement for trespassing and then arrested and booked under the Official Secrets Act,according to a letter from the Executive Editor of Mid-Day,Sachin Kalbag,published in the newspaper on Thursday. A railway court has remanded Akela to three days in police custody,the letter added.

Journalists in the city on Thursday marched to the state government headquarters,demanding Akelas release and seeking action against the GRP. In Delhi,the Editors Guild of India condemned the arrest and said it amounts to a direct assault on the freedom of the Press. The Guild notes that the article was written in public interest so as to bring to light serious dereliction of duty by government officials. It is the job of the media to expose wrong-doing in public institutions,and the reporter should not be penalised for acting in the best traditions of journalism, it said in a statement.

GRP officials refused to comment on the case when contacted by The Indian Express. Kalbag said he met Home Minister R R Patil and raised the issue with him. We raised a broader issue of the freedom of the Press,not just this case. And the Home Minister assured us that there will be no harassment of journalists doing investigative stories,any story,not just this one, Kalbag said.