Days after Assam journalist released on bail, police arrest his brother in separate case

Days after an Assam journalist booked in two cases was released on bail in Guwahati, the state police arrested his brother in an unrelated matter, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday.

The journalist, Dilwar Hussain Mozumder, was released from the Guwahati Central Prison on March 29 after he got bail in the two cases filed against him. One of the cases was filed under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act, while the second case was filed under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for allegedly trespassing a bank.

Dilwar, who works with digital news outlet The CrossCurrent, was arrested on March 25 after he sought to ask questions to Dombaru Saikia, the managing director of the Assam Co-operative Apex Bank, regarding alleged financial irregularities. Earlier that day, the Jatiya Yuva Shakti, the youth wing of the Assam Jatiya Parishad, had held a protest against the alleged irregularities.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is a director of the Assam Cooperative Apex Bank and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Biswajit Phukan is its chairman.

On Monday, the police arrested the journalist’s elder brother Tayabur Rahman Mozumder based on a case filed against him earlier in the day, The Indian Express quoted the officer in charge of Hojai police station, Dandadhar Choudhury, as saying.

Tayabur had been arrested in 2021 during a state government operation...

Read more