GUWAHATI – An Indian television journalist has been detained for merelycriticizing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and that tooon social media.
Kishorechandra Wangkhem was arrested under laws intended to ensure nationalsecurity after he uploaded several video clips last month terming thestate’s BJP chief minister, N Biren Singh, a ‘puppet’ of the centralgovernment.
Wangkhem’s lawyer, N Victor expressed that the detention was ‘nothing but ablatant abuse of the law and powers of the government,’ adding thathe planned to appeal against his client’s detention.
The journalist based in Manipur was initially arrested on separate chargesof sedition on November 21 but was released on November 25.
He was then detained on November 27 under National Security Act, underwhich once an be detained for up to a year without trial; the media workeris currently incarcerated in a jail in Imphal.
Read Top Stories
A board of judges set up under the Act approved his detention on Thursday,stirring protests in New Delhi.
In the social media posts, Wangkham criticised the state government forcommemorating freedom fighter, the Rani of Jhansi, a symbol of resistanceagainst British colonial rule in the mid-1800s.
“Don’t betray, don’t insult the freedom fighters of Manipur,” he said inone of the posts.
