The Delhi Police on Friday evening arrested journalist Pushp Sharma for allegedly fabricating an RTI reply to publish a news report claiming that the Government was discriminating against Muslims and denying them jobs of yoga trainers in the AYUSH Ministry. He was on Saturday presented before a city court.
“Sharma was arrested under charges of cheating, forgery and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc in connection with a case at Kotla Mubarakpur Police Station,” said Additional DCP (South) Nupur Prasad.
In March, the Delhi-based journalist was booked in the case which was registered days after his report, We don’t recruit Muslims: Modi Govt’s AYUSH Ministry appeared in Milli Gazette, a fortnightly English newspaper. After filing of the FIR, police grilled Sharma, who is a resident of Dayanand Colony in South-East Delhi, for three days but he was arrested on Friday, police said.
Zafarul-Islam Khan, chief editor of Milli Gazette, said, “The Ayush Ministry FIR against the journalist and the Press Council of India’s suo moto action are clear attempts to stifle the freedom of the press.”