A local journalist’s house in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district was allegedly set on fire, triggering a sharp attack on the BJP government by the Congress on Sunday (April 6, 2025) over freedom of speech and safety of media persons.
According to the police, the incident took place on April 4 around 8 p.m. in the Panwar Chouhanan Tola area under the Jamodi police station limits when local reporter and YouTuber Ravi Kumar Pandey and his family were home. While everyone came out safely, purported videos of the incident showed the blaze engulfing the kutchcha house.
Sidhi Superintendent of Police Ravindra Verma told The Hindu that an FIR had been filed based on a complaint from Mr. Pandey’s uncle Dean Dayal Pandey and investigation taken up.
Mr. Verma said the complainant had raised suspicions on a family with whom they have an old land dispute going on.
“We have pulled in the cyber cell to confirm the suspects’ locations at the time of the incident. The FSL team has also visited the spot for forensic evidence, and we are also contacting the potential witnesses,” he said, adding that the complainant also had a case against him filed by the suspects.
Jamodi police station in-charge Divya Prakash Tripathi said the journalist’s family had not suspected any foul play in their initial complaint.
“But yesterday [April 5], they raised suspicion of an outsider involvement, so we have added BNS [Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita] Section 356(g) to the FIR,” Mr. Tripathi said.
Sharing a video of the incident on Facebook, Mr. Pandey also said that he suspected four people and that he had received a threat but did not mention what the dispute was.
“There are four names who set the [house on] fire. One of them had threatened me three days ago. I have a recording of it. My whole family could have been burnt by this fire. But it was not too late in the night, so everyone was awake and ran out of the house to save their lives. Even a journalist’s family is not safe in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh. A journalist became homeless today,” Mr. Pandey wrote.
Speaking to The Hindu, Mr. Pandey said that while his family was involved in an old dispute with former village head Virendra Singh and his brother Arvind Singh, but alleged that the duo had been threatening him over a story related to gram panchayat’s water tankers about eight months ago.
“Virendra Singh fielded a proxy tribal candidate when the seat became reserved, but he still controls the panchayat work. His brother has abused and threatened me many times asking me to not oppose them,” Mr. Pandey said, accusing bias on part of the police.
“I wanted to name them in the FIR but the police convinced my uncle against it saying that in that case you will not get any compensation,” he claimed.
Even as the police insisted that the incident was not related to Mr. Pandey’s journalism, top Congress leaders, including State president Jitu Patwari, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath and former Minister Ajay Singh took to X to pull up the State government over the issue.
Mr. Patwari said, “Anarchy in Madhya Pradesh has crossed its peak! Along with the poor, labourers, deprived, exploited, Dalits, tribals and women, now even the media is being openly attacked!”
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Published – April 06, 2025 11:25 pm IST
