Mirzapur (Uttar Pradesh): The Uttar Pradesh government has filed a case against the journalist, who shot the video of school children being served chapati with salt for mid-day meal in a Mirzapur school.
The local journalist in question is Pawan Jaiswal, working with Jansandesh Times, was booked on charges of cheating and criminal conspiracy, based on a complaint by the Block Education Officer of the area.
In the FIR, Jaiswal has been accused of he being a representative of the local village head with whom he had connived to defame the state government.
It may be recalled that in the video uploaded on social media, children were seen sitting on the floor and eating chapatis with salt in the Mirzapur school.
In the FIR it is mentioned that only chapatis were cooked in the school on the day the video was shot. It is further mentioned in the FIR that the village head’s representative should have arranged for vegetables, instead of calling a journalist to the school premises to make the video.
After making the video, Jaiswal forwarded it to a news agency and was widely shared on the social media which in turn defamed the state government, the FIR says.
Earlier after the video went viral on the social media, Mirzapur District Magistrate ordered an inquiry and after finding the incident to be prima facie true, placed under suspension the teacher in charge of the school and the supervisor at the gram panchayat.