The Caravan Journalists Were Working on a Story About Police Misconduct

Newsreel Asia Insight #246
June 9, 2024

In a troubling turn of events linked to an August 2020 assault on journalists from The Caravan magazine, Delhi Police have now designated these same journalists as accused in a related criminal case. The journalists – Shahid Tantray, Prabhjit Singh and a female reporter – were attacked by a mob in northeast Delhi, which included communal slurs and threats of murder. The female journalist was also subjected to sexual harassment during the incident.

Nearly four years after the assault, in May 2024, Singh received a police notice at his former residence, informing him that he and his colleagues were accused under serious allegations including outraging the modesty of a woman and promoting communal enmity, says The Caravan. The notice comes despite the journalists having filed their own formal complaint, or FIR, on the day of the attack, which the police registered three days later and are now classifying as a “counter FIR.”

The FIR against the journalists was reportedly filed less than an hour before their own, yet they were not informed of its existence until recently, the magazine noted. “The allegations in the FIR are absolutely false and fabricated. For four years, neither The Caravan nor the named journalists were ever informed of any such FIR,” according to the magazine, which added, “Neither were our reporters asked to join the investigation in that case, nor were we informed of the status of progress, for four years. By contrast, the alleged case against our reporters has been duly put together.”

This has raised significant concerns about the motives behind the charges, especially given that the attack occurred while the journalists were following up on a story about police misconduct in the same station that now accuses them.

“At the time they were attacked, the three journalists were conducting follow-up reporting on an article by Singh and Tantray,” the magazine says. “The article was centred on a Muslim woman who had accused police officials at the Bhajanpura police station of beating and sexually assaulting her and her 17-year-old daughter a few days earlier. The woman had approached the police in early August 2020, after communal tensions arose in the area following the foundation-stone-laying ceremony of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya. Earlier that year, the woman in question had also filed a complaint regarding the Delhi violence of February 2020. The conduct of the police during the violence, especially towards Muslims, has come under serious question.”

These charges against The Caravan’s staff emerge amid a pattern of actions against independent media in India, including government orders blocking digital content and influencing media coverage through ownership dynamics. The situation reflects declining press freedom in India, which saw the country fall to 161st place on the World Press Freedom Index in 2023.

The Caravan has stated that it intends to fully comply with legal proceedings while contesting the allegations, which it claims are baseless and an attack on journalistic freedom.