- Wednesday, March 12, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Police in the city of Bhind in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have registered a case of forgery against three journalists over a news report that showed a family carrying a sick elderly man to a hospital on a handcart in the absence of an ambulance.
A complaint was filed by Rajiv Kaurav, medical officer of the state’s health department, following which a first information report (FIR) was registered against journalists Kunjbihari Kaurav, Anil Sharma and NK Bhatele on Thursday (18), Kamlesh Kumar, the head constable at Daboh police station in Bhind told Press Trust of India.
The trio have been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 420 (forgery) and 505 (public mischief) and relevant provisions of the country’s Information Technology Act. As per the complaint, the journalists published the news on August 15 that the family of 76-year-old Gaya Prasad had to take him to the hospital on a handcart as no ambulance was made available to them and that he did not get benefits of government schemes.
The Bhind district administration set up a committee comprising revenue and health officials for an inquiry into the news report following the publication of the news, the FIR said.
The committee found that Gaya Prasad’s family had not called an ambulance, something that his son Puran Singh said, and they were getting the benefits of government schemes, such as old-age pension, the FIR said. It was also reported that the family had taken the elderly man to a private hospital and not a government one.
Sharma, one of the three journalists, alleged that the district administration put pressure on Prasad’s family members by threatening to stop providing them with government aid.
The matter also took a political colour as the opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh accused the district administration of intimidating Gaya Prasad’s family to make false allegations against the journalists. Govind Singh, the leader of the opposition in Madhya Pradesh assembly, said it was an act of suppressing the media’s voice and vowed that the Congress will fight for the journalists.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s state working committee member Ramesh Dubey also condemned the act of registration of the FIR against the journalists and demanded action against the erring officials, PTI reported.
Bhind district collector Sathish Kumar S could not be contacted for reaction in the matter.
