YouTube journalist arrested for questioning Yogi's minister Gulab Devi on unfulfilled promises

In Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district, Sanjay Rana, a reporter with a YouTube channel has reportedly been arrested after questioning state minister for secondary education Gulab Devi at a function on March 11.

As per the local media, Rana was arrested following an FIR registered by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Shubham Raghav.

In a video shared on social media, Rana can be heard saying in Hindi in front of Devi, “(Before the elections) you had promised all of us, taken an oath in the temple, that this village (Budh Nagar Khandwa, where the event was taking place) is yours, that everyone here is your adopted child. You had told the village elders, ‘Tell me what work you need done, I will do it.’ You also said that if you win the elections, you would return to this village. But despite that, you never came back.”

"In Buddh Nagar, there is no baarat ghar. Neither has any government toilet been build. You had said you would pave the road from the temple to here (pointing outside the event space). Even now, the road is so kachha, even a bike can’t comfortably go on it. You had also specifically said that you will build a boundary wall around the village temple. No work has begun on that. Villagers tried to build pressure on these issues, but you never listened to them. What have you got to say about this?” Rana can be heard saying in the video.

Several people from the crowd appear to agree with teh Youtuber, that promises have not been fulfilled.

According to the media reports, an FIR was filed against Rana under Indian Penal Code Sections 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation).

“If someone is making false statements about the work they have done, shouldn’t you question it?” asked Rana after being atrrested. “I have not done anything wrong,” Rana said.