Scribe takes pics of kids mopping UP school, arrested

Barely days after booking the scribe, who had recorded the video, that showed children eating 'salt-roti' (chapati-salt) as mid-day meal, a journo was arrested for allegedly clicking pictures of children mopping floors of their school building in Azamgarh district.

According to the sources Santosh Jaiswal, who was associated with a Hindi daily, was arrested last week on the complaint of the school principal accusing him of trying to ''extort'' money from the teachers by threatening to click pictures of children mopping the floors.

A local court in Azamgarh had sent the scribe to jail in judicial custody.

Sources said that Santosh had reached the school situated in Phoolpur area in the district after getting information that the children were made to mop floors there on a daily basis.

He took some pictures at the school, sources said adding that the police also reached there after receiving a tip-off and brought the principal and the journo to the police station.

As the matter snowballed into a controversy triggering protests from the journalists' bodies, the district administration launched a probe. ''We are investigating the matter,'' said a senior police official in Azamgarh.

Barely a few days back Pawan Jaiswal, a journalist with a Hindi daily, had been booked for being part of a ''conspiracy'' hatched by a village panchayat chief to ''defame'' district administration and the state government by recording a video showing the children of a primary school being served 'salt-roti' as mid-day meal.

The Editors Guild of India had condemned the UP government's action against the journalist and demanded the withdrawal of the cases against the scribe.