A journalist, who was arrested for fabricating an RTI reply, has been sent to 14 days’ judicial custody by a Delhi court on Monday.
The scribe was arrested for allegedly forging an RTI reply and publishing a news report about the Ayush Ministry claiming discrimination against Muslims in their recruitment as yoga trainers.
Pushp Sharma, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Ashok Kumar after his two-day judicial custody expired. He was sent to Tihar Jail till May 30 in the case registered days after his report We don’t recruit Muslims: Modi Govt’s Ayush Ministry appeared in Milli Gazette, a fortnightly English language newspaper.
The Delhi-based journalist was arrested on May 14 on charges of cheating, forgery and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc in the case registered a Kotla Mubarakpur Police Station.
A senior police officer said Sharma was arrested in 2009 on the charge of extorting money from Government officials by threatening sting operations on them. There were also allegations that Sharma even tried to extort money from police officers on one occasion.