New Delhi: Following the brutal molestation of a minor girl in front of a bar on the Guwahati-Shillong Road on the night of July 9 that led to a public outcry, the editor of the channel that filmed the crime defended the decision of the cameramen to not intervene saying that had they not shot the incident, the molesters would have been roaming scot-free.
Atanu Bhuyan, the Guwahati-based editor-in-chief of Newslive posted a series of tweets explaining why his cameramen shot the footage of the gruesome crime and did not stop the mob that stripped and molested the girl in the busy area.
The teenaged girl was pulled by her hair, lifted up, thrown down, beaten up, thrashed, groped and slapped in full public view for 30 minutes at the road near the Christian Basti area in Guwahati by the mob of around 20 men.
"Mainstream news channels are flooding me with phone calls asking for the footage of the molestation incident. Some of them questioned me as to why my reporter and camera person shot the incident and didn't prevent the mob from molesting the girl. Many people r criticising us for shooting the molestation incident," Bhuyan, who tweets from the handle @atanubhuyan said.
"But let me tell them, arrests have been made only because of the visuals. My justification is all very simple. In case of a bomb blast, my reporters would have shot the visuals rather than donate blood. My reporters informed the police, who saved the girl before it was too 'late'. But I'm backing my team since the mob would have attacked them, prevented them from shooting, that would have only destroyed all evidence," he said.
"Look what happened in Akhil Gogoi's case. Since the attack on him at Nalbari wasn't filmed, only a single attacker is behind bars. Had we not shot the incident, the molesters would have been roaming scot-free," he added.
Three youths have been arrested even as Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi tonight said the incident should not have allowed to take place in a public place. The arrested included contractual employee of Assam Electronic Development Corporation Ltd Amarjyoti Kalita.
Kalita, who had also acted in an Assamese serial where he had enacted the role of a policeman, has since been dismissed from service. Two other arrested Dhananjoy Basfor and Bubul Das, police said.
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