Thaindian News

Guwahati, July 20 (IANS) TV journalist Gaurav Jyoti Neog was Friday arrested here in connection with the July 9 G.S. Road molestation case, that has rocked the nation, police said.

Neog, who worked for TV channel News Live, quit the job after he was accused of instigating the mob that molested and stripped a teenaged girl on a main road of Assam’s main city July 9 night.

The journalist has been arrested, Additional Superintendent of Police (Operations) Ranjan Bhuyan, who heads the special investigation team probing the case, told IANS.

“Neog has been booked under Section 294 (obscene acts and songs), Section 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), and Section 34 of the IPC,” newly-appointed Senior Superintendent of Police (City) A.P. Tiwari told IANS.

Right to Information (RTI) activist Akhil Gogoi had alleged that Neog, who was present during the molestation of the teenage girl outside a pub on the busy G.S. Road, had instigated the group of youths to strip her in public.

The activist had produced the video footage of the whole incident before the media to prove his allegation and also submitted the footage to Assam Police chief Jayanta Narayan Choudhury.

Neog resigned from the channel following the controversy. The channel’s editor-in-chief Atanu Bhuyan also resigned from the channel later.

The police have so far arrested 12 people for their alleged involvement in the crime and seized the raw video footage captured by the TV channel on the molestation.

However, Amarjyoti Kalita, whom the police have dubbed as the main culprit in the incident, is still at large.

Neog had moved an anticipatory bail in the Gauhati High Court. The court, however, rejected the plea Thursday and asked the police to submit the case diaries by July 30.

The case Monday rocked the first day of the Assam legislative assembly’s monsoon session with all the opposition parties staging an angry walkout.