Top AAP leaders humiliated as Punjab HC grants bail to Times Now reporter

New Delhi: Top Aam Aadmi Party leaders including its Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and Delhi Education Minister Atishi Marlena faced huge humiliation after Punjab High Court granted bail to Times Now Navbharat reporter Bhavana Kishore.

After the lower court sent Kishore, her cameraman Mrityunjay and her Driver to 14-day judicial custody on Saturday afternoon, Sanjay Singh pronounced his decision that the channel and BJP are against Dalits.

पंजाब की अदालत ने prima facie उस टीवी रिपोर्टर को दोषी पाया और 19 मई तक हिरासत में भेजा। बीजेपी और Times Now चैनल दलित विरोधी हैं। क्या उन्हें अदालत पर भरोसा नहीं है?#DalitVirodhiTimesNowBJP

— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) May 6, 2023

After High Court granted bail to the journalists within hours, Sajnay Singh was left embarrassed as people reminded him of Aam Aadmi Party’s response to Manish Sisodia’s matter.

अगर न्यायिक हिरासत में जेल भेजना दोषी पाना है तो फिर तो मनीष सिसोदिया सत्येंद्र जैन सोमनाथ भारती और दर्जनों आम आदमी पार्टी के मंत्री, विधायक, नेता कई कई बार दोषी करार दिए जा चुके है फिर जमानत रद्द होने पर भी उन्हें निर्दोष बोलते हो बहुत ही जाहिल आदमी हो यार

— DINESH BHATI (@mdineshbhati) May 6, 2023

Marlena too took to Twitter to attack Times Now Navbharat in a language that clearly established that the arrest was an act of vendetta against the channel for its Operation Sheeshmahal.

“Shocking news coming in from Punjab. A reporter from a BJP-supported news channel has run over a Dalit woman, and on being confronted has used reprehensible casteist slurs,” she wrote.

Shocking news coming in from Punjab. A reporter from a BJP supported news channel has run over a Dalit woman, and on being confronted has used reprehensible casteist slurs.

No one is above the law. Punjab Police must take the strongest possible action.

— Atishi (@AtishiAAP) May 6, 2023

However, Marlena too was left embarrassed by Punjab HC’s bail order.

Earlier, Times Now Navbharat said that it has been subjected to brazen harassment and intimidation tactics ever since the newsbreak of ‘Operation Sheesh Mahal', which uncovered the ultra-lavish and disproportionate expenditure incurred in refurbishing the official residence of Delhi CM. 

In a bizarre turn of events, on May 5, 2023, while invited to cover an AAP political program hosted by Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwat Mann in Ludhiana, Times Now Navbharat's reporter Bhawana Kishore, along with cameraman Mrityunjay and Driver, who had gone from Delhi to cover the event, were taken unawares and arrested by the Ludhiana police on charges of “rash driving and insulting Dalits”, the statement said.

The Chandigarh Press Club and the Press Club of India condemned the unlawful arrest of the Times Now journalist. In a press release in the evening, it was informed that Commissionerate Police on Friday arrested three persons for hitting a woman with a speeding car, resulting in injury on her right hand and also using derogatory language.