Assam: Outrage Grows Over Midnight Arrest of Journalist in Guwahati

GUWAHATI-  Dilwar Hussain Mozumder, a senior journalist and chief reporter for the digital news portal The Cross Current, was detained by Assam Police in Guwahati, sparking widespread outrage among media organizations and civil rights groups.

The incident occurred after Mozumder questioned Dambaru Saikia, the Managing Director of the Assam Cooperative Apex Bank, during a protest organized by Jatiya Yuva Shakti, the youth wing of the Assam Jatiya Parishad, against alleged financial irregularities in the bank. Following his inquiries, Dilwar was summoned to Panbazar Police Station, detained for over nine hours, and arrested around midnight on March 26, 2025.

Dilwar, who also serves as the assistant general secretary of the Gauhati Press Club, was charged under Section 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for criminal intimidation and Section 3(1)(r) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (amended 2015).

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On March 25, as the news about detaining Dilwar spread, several senior journalists and reporters of the city reached the police station. They were not allowed to meet Dilwar. The assembled journalists waited till past 1 a.m. trying to contact senior officials of the police station to know why was he being detained. His lawyer too was not allowed to enter the premises.

Since Dilwar was on fast, his wife had reached the police station with Iftaar in the early evening which too was refused. Dilwar, a diabetic, was also not allowed medicines. Past 11 p.m.

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The arrest has drawn sharp criticism from the Guwahati Press Club, which labeled it a “conspiratorial attack” on press freedom and demanded his immediate release. President Sushmita Goswami and General Secretary Sanjay Ray emphasized that detaining a journalist for performing his duties is a serious violation of democratic principles.

The timing of the arrest coincides with a recent Supreme Court ruling clarifying that offenses under the SC/ST Act require a public audience for caste-based remarks to be actionable, raising questions about the legal basis of dilawar’s charges.

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The press club of India ( PCI ) in statement issued by Gautam Lahiri (President) and  Neeraj Thakur (Secretary General ) condemns the Assam Police’s highhandedness on the matter, particularly refusal to inform his family and his colleagues on what grounds he was detained in the first place. Preventing a journalist from carrying out his official duty is a grave infringement of the freedom of press that is guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (A) of the Constitution, they stated.

The PCI urges the Assam Government and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is also the state home minister, to look into the matter with all sincerity, and ensure that the state police respect the true spirit of the SC/ST Act, while also taking into consideration that there must not be any false charges lodged against a reporter who belongs to a backward, minority community, and was covering a sensitive corruption-related protest as part of his routine job.

Opposition parties, including Congress, Raijor Dal, and Assam Jatiya Parishad, along with various media bodies, have echoed these sentiments, calling for transparency and accountability from the authorities.

Meanwhile, the incident has intensified debates over press freedom and the safety of journalists in Assam, with many viewing it as an attempt to suppress investigative reporting.