Journalist among 8 stripped down to underwear, detained for 18 hours

Tiwari, who runs the YouTube channel 'mpsandeshnews24', told ETV Bharat that in charge of the police station, Abhishek Singh Parihar had threatened to parade him and others naked in the city if he reported against the MLA.

Sidhi (MP):A group of eight men, including a journalist, were detained and stripped down to their underwear in a police station in the Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh. The photos of the nearly-nude men huddled together in front of a police official have gone viral on social media.

The incident occurred on April 2 when a local YouTube journalist Kanishk Tiwari, who also works as a stringer for a news channel, went to cover the protest by some theatre artists near the Kotwali police station. The theatre artists were protesting the detention of their colleague Neeraj Kunder who had been arrested for making alleged indecent remarks against BJP MLA Kedarnath Shukla Shukla on social media.

As the journalist started covering the protest, the police detained the protestors as well as the journalist and made them remove their clothes. The eight were kept in lock-up for 18 hours during which they were thrashed and made fun of. Police, calling them miscreants, arrested them under IPC section 151 and put them in preventive detention. The eight were released on bail a day later (April 3).

Tiwari, who runs the YouTube channel 'mpsandeshnews24', told ETV Bharat that in charge of the police station, Abhishek Singh Parihar had threatened to parade him and others naked in the city if he reported against the MLA. "We were arrested at around 8 pm on April 2 and were made to remove our clothes, were beaten and harassed until 6 pm the next day," he said.

"That (viral) picture was clicked by Abhishek Singh Parihar. We are two journalists among the people seen in the picture. My cameraman and I. The rest are local theatre artists and RTI activists who were protesting against the arrest of theatre artist Neeraj Kunder in a case. Kunder was arrested for making derogatory remarks against local MLA Kedarnath Shukla by creating a fake Facebook profile. The theatre workers were opposing this. I went to do cover it along with my cameraman," he told ETV Bharat.

Superintendent of Police, Sidhi district, Mukesh Kumar said those protesting outside the police station were "shouting objectionable slogans". "Police explained to them, but they did not listen. Protesters were detained late in the night and were duly arrested under (Section) 151," the officer said. Asked about the detained people being forced to remove clothes and their photographs taken, the SP said: "These pictures are in my knowledge. We are investigating under what circumstances these pictures were taken. The DSP has to investigate this. It has been handed over. Right now Kotwali inspector and police station in-charge Manoj Soni along with deputy inspector Abhishek Parihar, Amiliya police station have been attached," he said.