NEW DELHI, 8 August — Aniruddha Bahal, one of two journalists who posed as arms merchants and exposed corruption in weapons deals in India, was arrested here yesterday and released after three hours amid widespread criticism.
A city court released Aniruddha, who heads the investigating team of the website tehelka.com, on bail. He was arrested on charges of assaulting, obstructing and abusing an officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday. The arrest sparked widespread protests from mediapersons and politicians, who dubbed it an assault on the freedom of the press.
Soon after his release from the court, Aniruddha said: "If they think they can destroy Tehelka’s spirit by doing all this, then they are sadly mistaken.
"This is basically a message to all journalists who expose corruption at high levels. It augurs very bad for Indian democracy."
About 10 to 12 policemen swooped on Aniruddha when he came to work at the Web site Tehelka’s office around 11.00 a.m. and took him away. Metropolitan Magistrate Reena Singh Nag let off Aniruddha on a personal bond of 25,000 rupees after Tehelka’s counsel told the court that the case was "cooked up".
The magistrate asked Aniruddha to submit his passport with the investigators and to cooperate with them. Tarun Tejpal, chief executive officer (CEO) of the website denied the CBI charge, saying the authorities have been targeting the website relentlessly for last year’s sensational investigation that stunned Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government.
