Congress express concern over safety of arrested journalist Vinod Verma

RAIPUR: The Congress on Saturday said that necessary steps have to be taken to ensure safety and security of senior journalist Vinod Verma, who was arrested by Chhattisgarh police in connection with the extortion and blackmailing case.

"The way the police and the BJP government is working in tandem, we have our own concerns over the safety of journalist Vinod Verma," he told reporters at the state party headquarters here.

Stating that the BJP and its government's track record relating to freedom of press has not been good across the country, Baghel cited examples including that of BJP chief Amit Shah filing Rs 100 crore suit against a news portal, Rajasthan government's latest bill to curtail media freedom and other incidents of intimidation and persecution of journalists in the past.

The state Congress chief claimed that the BJP governments never responds to the issues being raised but adopts the practice of trying to throttle the media using government machinery.

"I am sure that our telephones are being tapped," the state Congress chief said.

The state Congress president further asserted that arrested journalist Vinod Verma is not a member of the Congress party but had conducted social media training programme for the party's cadre as a social media expert. "As far as his relationship with me, Vinod Verma's relatives are also members of the BJP", he added.