LUCKNOW: Mirzapur’s district magistrate Anurag Patel on Tuesday said that journalist Pawan Jaiswal was booked after he was found to be part of a conspiracy to malign the government. Patel said he (Jais wal) should have written a news report and taken photos of the primary schoolchildren being served with salt and roti in mid-day meal instead of shooting a video of the incident.
Patel’s latest statement came three days after the journalist, associated with a Hindi language publication, was booked. Speaking to mediapersons, Patel was seen at a loss of words while explaining the reason for initiating criminal and legal proceedings.“There is a different way to make news,” said the DM. He tried to substantiate the conspiracy charge against Jaiswal by claiming that someone in the video was heard asking Jaiswal to “make a viral video and come and be part of a conspiracy”.
When confronted by a reporter that the word viral was not heard in the video, Patel said: “Maybe he didn’t say ‘viral’ but he is asking for a video to be made. You are a print media journalist, you could have taken photos. You could have printed it, but you did not do it. We found his role in the matter to be suspicious,” Patel said.
Earlier, the DM had endorsed the video claiming that two separate investigations, initiated by him on the day the meals were served, had proved that Jaiswal’s report was true. He had even suspended the teacher in-charge of the government school along with the supervisor at the gram panchayat. But on Tuesday he claimed a third inquiry revealed Jaiswal was also involved.Meanwhile, 100 journalists took out a protest at the collectorate office in Mirzapur over the charges against Jaiswal.