NEW DELHI, June 12 (Xinhua) -- A journalist working for a local Hindi news channel, News24, was thrashed by the Government Railways Police (GRP) in northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, officials said Wednesday.
According to the victim Amit Kumar Sharma, he was covering the derailment of a goods train on Tuesday night near Dhimanpura in Shamli district, about 641 km northwest of Lucknow, the capital city of Uttar Pradesh.
"They (GRP personnel) were in plain clothes. One hit my camera and it fell down. When I picked it up they hit and abused me. I was locked up, stripped and they urinated in my mouth," Sharma told media.
In a video about the incident on social media and broadcast on news channels, the journalist is punched, slapped and abused by a group of policemen as he pleads with them to stop.
According to Sharma, the GRP personnel were annoyed with a report that he filed about them earlier.
"It all began sometime back when I reported about an illegal trade racket run by the GRP personnel in the trains, I reported the story and since then I have been on the target of these GRP personnel. Last night, without any fault of mine, when I went to cover the goods train derailment, I was beaten and locked up," Sharma said.
The incident triggered outrage, following which Uttar Pradesh police chief ordered an immediate suspension of the two erring GRP personnel.
The incident comes a day after India's Supreme Court pulled up Uttar Pradesh government over the arrest of journalist Prashant Kanojia over allegations of "defaming" Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
