Bhubaneswar:
A journalist in Gajapti district of Orissa has been arrested on charges of 'sedition'.
However, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has described the charges against Laxman Choudhry as ridiculous.
Laxman is a reporter for a leading Oriya daily and was arrested by the police six weeks ago. This, after a packet addressed to him and containing copies of a Maoist leaflet was seized from a bus conductor. Copies of the same Maoist leaflet were circulated widely and sent by post to many journalists across the state, including this reporter.
Laxman was charged with waging war against the state and sedition and then sent to jail along with the bus conductor.
Laxman's wife says the police victimized him on false charges as he had filed reports exposing their misdeeds. "If you expose the truth you are in trouble. The local police couldn't simply tolerate the idea of a small-time journalist taking on them. They can't do a thing to the real Maoists but vent their frustrations on innocent people," says Minati.
Journalists in Bhubaneswar staged protests demanding immediate withdrawal of baseless charges against Laxman, but the police and the government refused to respond. "This is to create a fear psychosis among mediapersons and to gag the press," says Prashant Patnaik, a senior journalist from Bhubaneswar.
The bail petitions of Laxman and the bus conductor are pending before the high court. No one knows when their cases will be heard. But the issue has raised serious questions about the freedom of the press.