The Tripura Police have detained journalists Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha after booking them earlier on Sunday, ANI reported, citing the state’s inspector general (law and order) Arindam Nath. The journalists were covering the recent communal violence in Tripura.

On Sunday morning, Tripura Police had filed a first information report against the two journalists based on a complaint by a person Kanchan Das. He had alleged that Sakunia and Jha made an “instigating speech” against the Hindu community and the Tripura government while visiting people from the Muslim community in the Unakoti district’s Paul Bazaar area.

The journalists have been charged Indian Penal Code sections 120(B)(punishment for criminal conspiracy), 153(A) (offence of promoting disharmony, enmity or feelings of hatred between different groups on the grounds of religion) and 504 (intentional insult).

On Sunday afternoon, Sakunia and Jha had been detained in Assam’s Karimganj district. News channel HW News, the employer of the journalists, confirmed the development in a statement. The Assam Police later handed them over to Tripura Police.

After the Assam Police took the journalists into custody, Sakunia said in a tweet that they had been detained at the Nilambazar police station in Karimganj district.

“We were informed by the officer in-charge of Nilambazar PS [police station] that SP l[superintendent of police] of Gom[a]ti district [in Tripura] gave the orders for our detention,” Sakunia tweeted.

In his complaint against the journalists, Kanchan Das had also said that Sakunia and Jha had blamed the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal for burning a mosque in the Paul Bazaar area.

The complainant alleged that the journalists were a part of the criminal conspiracy to damage the communal harmony of Tripura and malign the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Tripura government.

Tension has been prevailing in Tripura after a mosque and several shops were attacked in the Panisagar sub-division during a Vishwa Hindu Parishad rally on October 26. The Hindutva outfit was protesting about the attacks on Hindus in neighbouring Bangladesh. The police have claimed that no mosque had been burnt in the violence.

In a video statement issued on Sunday morning, Sakunia said that they were served a copy of the first information report on Sunday morning and more than 15 policemen were deployed outside the hotel where they were staying.

The police also took Aadhaar and transport details of the two journalists, Sakunia said.

Meanwhile, in its statement on Sunday afternoon, HW News said that the police do not have a case against their journalists.

The statement said that section 46 of the Code of Criminal Procedure does not allow women to be arrested after sunset or before sunrise without the order of the magistrate. It said that this procedure was not followed by the police.

It cited Assam police saying that the two journalists will be taken back to Tripura for questioning. The statement said this was done despite police earlier allowing them to leave the hotel in Tripura where they were staying. The police had also given the journalists seven days to record their statement.

“This is sheet harassment and targeting of the press on the part of Tripura Police and Tripura Government to suppress us from reporting facts of the case,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Home Affairs on Saturday said that no mosque had been damaged in Tripura, The Indian Express reported. The Centre denied reports of injury, rape or death in any clash in the state.

“There have been news reports that have been circulating that a mosque in Kakraban area of Gomati district in Tripura has been damaged and vandalised,” the ministry said in a statement. “These news reports are fake and are a complete misrepresentation of facts.”

Scroll.in has contacted the police and a response is awaited.

Police’s claims misleading: AltNews

Meanwhile, fact-checking website AltNews on Saturday reported that the Tripura Police’s claim of no mosques being vandalised in the state’s Panisagar town was incorrect. On October 28, the Tripura Police had made the claim in a statement replying to a tweet posted by Sakunia.

Sakunia had tweeted a video showing a Muslim man in an ambulance following an attack by unidentified people.

The police have maintained that no mosques were burnt and that images of the alleged incident shared on social media were fake. The police had shared the images of Rowa Jame Masjid to claim that no mosque was burned down.

However, AltNews said that multiple people, including local journalists, told the website that a mosque at the former Central Reserve Police Force camp in Panisagar was vandalised and torched.

This mosque is located about 3 kilometres away from the Rowa Jame Masjid, according to AltNews.

Besides AltNews, Al Jazeera and Article 14 had also shared images of the mosque in the former CRPF camp being torched.

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