NEW DELHI, July 16: Welcoming the arrest of the owner of Afkar daily, Pyare Miyan, accused of raping four minor girls and running a sex racket in Madhya Pradesh, the Indian Journalists Union (IJU) demanded that strictest action be taken against him as other than his heinous crimes he had sullied the profession of journalism.
Further, the union demanded that the SIT investigate the matter thoroughly against the backdrop of rumours that he had a “quid pro quo relationship with those in power.”
Miyan, who was absconding, carried a reward of Rs 30,000 on his head, and was arrested in Srinagar, J&K, on Wednesday, following a group of minor girls in capital Bhopal being found by police in a disoriented condition on the city outskirts.
Investigations revealed that Miyan brought out Afkar solely for “government advertisements and to get access to politicians, police and bureaucrats.”
SP (South) Sai Krishna Thota told The Indian Express that Miyan had travelled abroad with minor girls in the past few years, though he passed these off as treatment/business-related.
He was dealing in property and owns several properties in Bhopal and Indore, and the district administration demolished a wedding hall and a flat built illegally by him. His flat, which the police broke into, resembles a dance bar with expensive liquor bottles and child pornography, sex toys, etc.
Miyan’s 21-year-old woman accomplice, a driver, and a manager were also taken into custody.
In a statement, IJU president Geetartha Pathak and secretary-general Sabina Inderjit expressed regret that media was getting a bad name because of crooks like Miyan. They welcomed the cancellation of his accreditation and withdrawal of the government quarters allotment in Professors’ Colony, from where he ran his office.
Noting that Miyan’s activities suggest that he had the support of those in power, the IJU has insisted on a thorough probe, and that all, including the powerful, be brought to book. Recalling a similar case of Brajesh Thakur, who had claimed to be a journalist and ran a sex racket in a girls’ shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, the union called upon its members and the journalist community to uphold the ethical standards and expose those who misuse the profession for personal gains and power.
