Odisha TV journalist picked up by police, channel says ‘targeted’ for exposing govt claim

A senior journalist employed with regional news channel OTV was on Thursday picked up by the police in Odisha’s Keonjhar district over alleged involvement in a case of obscene video that was circulated online last year.

While OTV alleged that the police specifically targeted the journalist – Ramesh Rath – for doing a series of operations “exposing” BJD government in the state, police denied the allegations and said no arrest was made.

Sadar police station in-charge Jai Narayan Khandai said: “One of the accused who was arrested in the case and was serving jail term had informed us that the journalist had some video material pertaining to the case. Based on the statement, necessary actions were initiated. No arrests have been made yet.”