‘The Sutra’ editors nabbed for blackmailing Rajasthan Deputy CM Diya Kumari
Rajasthan Police on Friday arrested two senior journalists from Bhopal for publishing defamatory articles against Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari. Madhya Pradesh-based journalists Anand Pandey and Harish Divekar were publishing defamatory articles in a portal named as ‘The Sutra’.
According to Jaipur Police, the journalists were demanding Rs.5 crore as extortion and blackmail to stop the further publication of articles against Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari. The articles were alleging corruption and defamatory content against the lady Deputy Chief Minister.
Though Diya Kumari is not the complainant, the arrest was made on a complaint by another person accusing journalists of maligning the Deputy Chief Minister. The complainant claimed that the duo contacted acquaintances of the deputy chief minister, demanding several crores of rupees to delete the false reports and to refrain from publishing such content in the future. They also allegedly threatened to damage her political and social image if the demand was not met, Jaipur police said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Arun Yadav, in a post on X, said, “When journalists who tell the truth are in jail while those who spread lies roam free, then understand that democracy is in danger.” He claimed that the detention of Pandey and Divekar was a “direct attack on democracy”. “The Sutra’s tagline ‘we fear only god’ scares the BJP government the most, because true journalists do not compromise with power,” he wrote in the post.
According to the Rajasthan police, the same misleading content was also circulated on another affiliated web portal called ‘The Capital‘. Technical examination and witness statements confirmed that the reports were not fact-based. Based on the evidence collected, Pandey and Divekar were detained from Bhopal on Friday and were brought to Jaipur for further questioning.
In a first information report filed at Jaipur’s Karni Vihar police station, the two journalists were accused of “blackmailing and extortion by publishing false and defamatory content. The complaint was filed by a person identified as Narendra Singh Rathore. The journalists were booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to defamation, extortion, and publication of false information, in addition to the provisions of the Information Technology Act.
The complainant claimed that the duo later contacted acquaintances of the deputy chief minister, demanding several crores of rupees to delete the false reports and to refrain from publishing such content in the future. Police said the same misleading content was also circulated on another affiliated web portal called ‘The Capital’. Technical examination and witness statements confirmed that the reports were not fact-based, the release said. During the investigation, it emerged that the accused had threatened to launch a campaign titled ”Destroy Diya” if their extortion demand was not met.
Jaipur Police Commissioner Biju George Joseph’s office issued a statement saying that after the complaint, “an investigation was conducted, statements of relevant witnesses were recorded, and technical data was obtained”. The investigation found that the news published on the portal “was not based on facts”, the statement added. “The investigation revealed that the accused had made an illegal demand of Rs 5 crore to remove false news from The Sootr channel and the web page and to prevent the broadcast of false news in the future,” said a senior police officer.
At around 5:30 pm, at the request of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, journalists were released from Jaipur Police custody.
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