GUWAHATI, April 30: Journalists in Assam are passing through a trying time, and the case of Prakash Mahanta, a correspondent at Nagaon for the Guwahati-based Natun Samay is just one example of how scribes are being pounced upon by the authorities for exposing the truth.Prakash Mahanta (36) was picked up from his house in village Uriyagaon, which falls under the Barhampur assembly constituency, represented by none other than Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, on February seven and has since been languishing in jail.Though the charges against him are under sections of 120(a) and 121(a) of the Indian penal code, which refer to ``conspiring against the state and waging a war against the Government of India'', it is well known that he was picked up for writing about how the police and administration in the home district of the Chief Minister was allegedly used during the election campaign of Jayashree Goswami Mahanta.Jayashree Goswami Mahanta, the Chief Minister's wife, was the Asom Gana Parishadcandidate for the Nagaon Lok Sabha election held in February, and Prakash Mahanta, in a series of reports published in Natun Samay had equated her with Phuleswari Kunwari, a despotic queen of the Ashom dynasty.A police party led by Nagaon district SP first went to look for Prakash Mahanta in a fish-farm which he had set up with loans from the government, ransacked it, and then went to his residence, where he was allegedly assaulted by the SP himself. The police officer, who took with him a couple of black panther commandoes, created by the Assam police specifically to tackle the ULFA and Bodo militants, and particularly injured Prakash Mahanta on his right arm, allegedly saying ``this is the hand with which you have been writing all these nonsense.'' Prakash bled profusely due to the beating, but was denied medical treatment until he was produced before a magistrate the following day, February eight, when the court also turned down a police plea to grant three days police custody to the journalist, forinterrogation.He is now lodged in the special jail, Nagaon, and it was only last week that a bail plea was turned down by the Guwahati High Court. But, his detention will complete 90 days on May 9, which incidentally is the maximum detention allowed under any section of the IPC until the police frames a charge-sheet, which is understood to be not yet ready.Prakash Mahanta is the only journalist currently in jail in the state, though it remains a fact that attack on journalists by the police has become the order of the day here. ``Last year at least eight journalists were detained by the police on various charges, all of which are falsely framed,'' said Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, who himself was held under National Security Act in August, 1997 to be released early this year, for allegedly conspiring to wage a war against the country.Bhuyan, who had earlier gone to jail twice during the Congress regime headed by Hiteswar Saikia, was arrested by the Mahanta government, and was shifted from one jail to anotherwith the police filing different cases in different police stations. It may be recalled that police even dragged him to the state assembly, where he was admonished for a case of breach of privilege.The murder of another journalist Parag Kumar Das, committed about two years ago, on the other hand is still being probed by the CBI after the state police failed to nab the culprits.
