Journalist Mandeep Punia Recalls Moments After Arrest

Amidst the relentless crackdown on the protesting farmers and journalists reporting on their stories, some relief has been granted with Mandeep Punia’s release on bail. Punia, a freelance journalist, was arrested while covering the farmers protest at Delhi’s Singhu border. BETWA SHARMA reports on his experience.

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“AUR leh kar report, aur leh kar report (do more reporting),” is what independent journalist Mandeep Punia recalls the policemen saying to him when they were holding him in a tent near the farmers’ protest site at Singhu border between Delhi and Haryana on January 30.

Punia, who was arrested several hours later, said the policemen beat him, broke his camera, and took his phone.

Punia said, “My friends and family did not know where I was. I kept asking them to let me make one phone call to get some legal aid, but they said, ‘now you make your phone call from Tihar.’”

Also Read: Freelance journalist Mandeep Punia granted bail

Punia, 24, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), who was reporting on the protest challenging the Narendra Modi government’s farm laws, including for the Caravan Magazine, said the policemen told him to sign an undertaking saying he would not misbehave with the police.

Punia said he was hit on the legs with lathis when he was in the tent, and “slapped” a few times when he was being forced to sign the undertaking, but he refused.

“You are beating me and then telling me to say that I will not misbehave with the police.  I did not sign the undertaking. This is not right,” he said. 

“I told them, ‘I’ve not done anything.’ Why should I write an undertaking? Why should I compromise? Send me to jail if you need to,” said Punia.

“You are beating me and then telling me to say that I will not misbehave with the police.  I did not sign the undertaking. This is not right,” he said.

Also Read: “Anything can happen to you. So, one has to be mentally prepared.”

Punia’s arrest, amid a crackdown by the Modi government on the farmers’ protest, a slew of FIRs being registered against Indian journalists, caused a furor on social media.

In an interview on February 1, the day of the bail hearing, Punia’s wife, Leelashree Godara said, “I’m mentally prepared. This is my responsibility. I think anyone who is speaking up needs to be. But one has to speak up.”

Leelashree and Mandeep Punia. Source: Outlook

“What I’m worried about is they are adding things to the FIR. The system is like that. The government is like that. We say this is a democracy, but we are going in the direction of a monarchy. Anything can happen to you. So, one has to be mentally prepared,” she said.

Punia was granted bail by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM), North District, Satvir Singh Lamba on February 2, and he walked out of Tihar Jail on the night of February 3.

“What I’m worried about is they are adding things to the FIR. The system is like that. The government is like that. We say this is a democracy, but we are going in the direction of a monarchy. Anything can happen to you. So, one has to be mentally prepared,” she said. 

The Delhi Police say that Punia was detained for misbehaving with police personnel at the Singhu border and that he pushed a constable during a scuffle. The FIR was registered under the Indian Penal Code Sections (IPC)186 and 353, which relates to obstructing a public servant in discharge of public functions, and assaulting a public servant in execution of duty. Sections 332 (causing voluntary hurt) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the IPC have also been recorded against him at the Alipur Police Station.

Banduraj Baghrawat, the substitute additional public prosecutor who appeared for the state, opposed the bail on the grounds that the accused may indulge in instigating protestors and creating a nuisance at the protest site. 

Also Read: No Country for Free Press: Relentless Campaign to Maim Press

In the order granting bail to Punia, CMM Lamba noted that while the date of the scuffle was 6:30 pm on January 30, the FIR was registered at 1:21 am on January 31. “Moreover, the complainants, victims and witnesses are police personnel only. Hence, there is no possibility that the accused can influence any of the police officials,” reads the order.

In the many hours that passed from the time he was apprehended to the time he was sent to Tihar jail, Punia recalled feeling numb. “I was just thinking, ‘let’s just get it over with,’” he said.

In the order granting bail to Punia, CMM Lamba noted that while the date of the scuffle was 6:30 pm on January 30, the FIR was registered at 1:21 am on January 31. “Moreover, the complainants, victims and witnesses are police personnel only. Hence, there is no possibility that the accused can influence any of the police officials,” reads the order.

Inside Tihar, after meeting protesting farmers who had been arrested, Punia said he arranged for a pen and set about getting their stories, writing their names, where they hailed from, and what injuries they had suffered, on his leg.

“The work of a reporter is to report especially if you see persecuted people around you. Even if you are in Tihar for a long time or a short time, why waste time? One has to report,” said

Punia said that reporting as an independent journalist is fraught with risks, and there was never a guarantee of receiving any kind of support when things were difficult.

In this instance, however, his friends and colleagues rallied.

“That has meant everything,” he said.

(Betwa Sharma is an independent journalist who covers politics and civil liberties. She was the politics editor at HuffPost India.)