KUMUD JENAMANI
Jamshedpur, March 29: Despite a court case being disposed of, a team of police officials from Sonari thana harassed the family members of a prominent photojournalist on Friday.
Having come to the house of the photojournalist, Sanjiv Kumar Dutta, the police team not only served a behind-time summon but also allegedly demanded money from the family concerned.
Sanjiv Kumar Dutta is an accredited photojournalist and works for the foreign news agency, Agence France-Presse (AFP) for the Jharkhand region.
At the time, the police team swooped over the photojournalist’s house the latter was out of station on assignment. Moreover, Sanjiv’s father Chiranjiv Dutta has been bedridden due to paralysis for the past three years.
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Case already disposed, yet police served summon and demand money
The photojournalist who has substantiated his claim with copies of the disposal of the case involving his father as a prosecution witness said that the case (GR Case No. 267/2021 and Registration No 503/2022) had already been disposed of on February 5, 2025.
“But despite the case having been disposed of on February 5, 2025, and the judgement coming in favour of the accused, the Sonari police came over to my house with the summon on March 28. Moreover, the visiting police officials led by sub-inspector Shivam Raj have demanded money,” alleged the photojournalist while talking to The Jharkhand Story.
As a result of the harassment meted out to his ailing father and other members of the family in his absence, Sanjiv Kumar Dutta has demanded the Senior SP Kishore Kaushal to take stern action against the erring police officers responsible for the harassment.
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Police cite workload issues
The Sonari OC, Sarayu Kumar Anand admitted that an officer had visited the house of Chiranjiv Dutta for the compliance of a court summon on March 28.
“We were not aware that the court summon that the police officer wanted to serve to a prosecution witness had no relevance as the case had already been disposed of earlier. And this kind of inconsistency happened as we are overloaded with work, ” said the OC while replying to the queries by The Jharkhand Story.
