Jharkhand-based freelance Hindi journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh’s has reportedly been arrested by the police.
According to sources, Singh’s residence was also raided early Sunday morning and continued till 2 pm.
Singh had published a report on how factories in Giridih district were leading to health disasters in the nearby villages. He also posted a video of an 11-year-old girl suffering from a medical condition tagging the Assam chief minister Hemant Biswa for help.
On July 17 (Sunday), Seraikella‑Kharsawan police officials reportedly knocked at his door at around 5:30 am and demanded a house search.
Even though pictures of Singh being escorted by the police have been making the rounds of Twitter when Siasat.com contacted the Superintendent of Police, he denied the news.
Who is Rupesh Kumar Singh?
Rupesh Kumar Singh is a freelance Hindi journalist based out of Jharkhand. He has reported on several issues mainly the ones affecting the tribal community in the state.
Last year, his name featured among the 40 journalists whose phone numbers were tapped by Pegasus hacking software. This software is made by an Israeli company that claims to sell it only to governments.
Three phone numbers of Singh were named by the leaked database. Earlier before the leak, Singh reported about the fake encounter of a tribal man named Motilal Baske by the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action or Cobra, a special unit under the Central Reserve Police Force in 2017.
When Singh investigated the murder, he found out that Baske, as claimed by the CRPF, was not a Maoist guerilla but a porter who physically ferried pilgrims to the Parasnath Hills.
Singh’s report was published in The Wire the same year and the report garnered huge support from the tribal communities. Further, the issue was raised by elected representatives in the Jharkhand Assembly.
In an interview with Scroll.in, Singh admitted that soon after his report got published, he began to sense a pattern.
“If I phoned someone to tell them I am reaching a location to report, then some people would ask for me and what I was doing,” he said. And every time he picked up a phone call, there would be a strange beeping sound, he claimed. “I started using my phone less because there are many false encounters and arrests in Jharkhand in the name of catching Maoists,” he told Scroll.in
In June 2019, Singh was booked by the Bihar police under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for allegedly carrying detonators and gelatin sticks. They claimed Singh worked for the Naxals.
Singh was lodged in Shergati jail in Gaya district and was finally granted bail in December 2019.
In 2021, after his phone numbers were leaked by the database for surveillance by Israeli spyware Pegasus, Singh spoke to The Wire where he said he was not shocked but certainly offended at the invasion of privacy.
“How can you invade someone’s privacy? In the present system, our incumbent rulers have basically captured democracy. It is the first step towards capturing democracy. I believe the current situation in India is an undeclared emergency for journalism,” he said.
“What one is doing in one’s bedroom, or who they’re talking to, is being tracked. To silence journalists like me, they are tapping the phones of our family members too, who are not even concerned with our work,” he said.
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