GUWAHATI: The Assam police raided the Guwahati residence of arrested digital media reporter Dilwar Hussain Mozumder on Friday morning and seized documents even as journalists in the city staged a black badge protest against his re-arrest.
Mozumder was granted bail in a case registered against him for allegedly abusing a guard of the Assam Cooperative Apex Bank Limited. But he was re-arrested in another case for allegedly attempting to steal files from the bank.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Thursday stated that two-three other cases were registered against Mozumder, chief reporter of ‘The CrossCurrent,’ and the police would arrest him in each of them. The arrest has nothing to do with his professional work, Sarma said.
He had also stated that Mozumder was not a journalist but a businessman who worked part-time for the digital news portal that is owned by a politician. The portal has been critical of ruling BJP for quite some time.
Mozumder was detained on Tuesday when he went to cover a protest that the youth wing of political party Assam Jatiya Parishad was staging against alleged financial irregularities in the bank. Later, he was arrested.
The Gauhati Press Club (GPC) on Friday urged all journalists to wear black badge for the next three days as a mark of protest against the re-arrest of Mozumder who is the club’s assistant general secretary. The GPC convened a meeting of all journalists on March 30.
“The meeting will discuss the memorandum on ‘safety of journalists’ previously resolved to be submitted to the highest authorities and stakeholders,” the GPC said in a statement.