Two scribes allege Delhi Police assault after queries to CM Rekha Gupta

Two women journalists working with digital news platform 4PM have alleged that they were detained and assaulted by Delhi Police personnel on Thursday, 3 September while trying to question chief minister Rekha Gupta, with one of them alleging that the assault became more severe after police heard her surname was 'Khan'.

Journalists Shaheen Khan and Nafisa said they were detained while covering the Delhi government and were subsequently taken to a police station. Shaheen alleged that she was grabbed, dragged and beaten after she tried to question Gupta. She further alleged that police personnel asked her name and that the assault intensified after they heard her surname, Khan.

The two journalists told PTI they were on their way to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for medical examinations and to obtain their medico-legal certificates (MLCs). There was no immediate response from Delhi Police to the allegations.

In a post on X, 4PM described the incident as serious and said Shaheen had been attempting to question Gupta when police personnel allegedly detained and assaulted her. The organisation also raised questions over whether the action could be linked to its recent reporting and questioning of the Delhi government and the chief minister.

'4PM has consistently raised serious questions and published reports on the Delhi government and chief minister Rekha Gupta,' the organisation posted, while demanding an impartial investigation. It called for CCTV and other video footage from the location and police station to be preserved and for action against any police personnel found to have assaulted Shaheen or mistreated her on the basis of her religious identity.

The allegations have drawn political criticism. The Congress, in a post on X, accused Delhi Police of detaining and assaulting Shaheen after she questioned the chief minister and alleged that the treatment became more brutal after police learned that she was Muslim. The party demanded strict action against the personnel involved and said the incident raised questions about press freedom under the BJP government.

Aam Aadmi Party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj also alleged that the two women reporters had been “very brutally beaten” for questioning Gupta and criticised the chief minister.

Public-policy professional and Cockroach Janta Party spokesperson Ashutosh Ranka described Shaheen as one of the finest journalists he had encountered in Delhi and condemned the alleged action by the police.

The allegations come against the backdrop of 4PM's recent reporting on the Delhi government. The news organisation has itself suggested that the possibility of a connection between its reporting and Thursday's action should be examined, but there is currently no independent evidence establishing such a link.

The immediate questions, therefore, are whether the journalists were detained lawfully, what prompted the police action, whether force was used and, crucially, whether Shaheen's religious identity played any role in the alleged assault. The journalists' medical examinations, CCTV footage and the Delhi Police's account are likely to be key to establishing what happened.