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Assembly sends editors, publisher to jail for article against Mahanta

The Assam assembly on Friday found the editor, executive editor, publisher and proprietor of the Assamese daily Ajit Batori guilty of breach of privilege for publishing a defamatory article against Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.

They have been sentenced to a day's imprisonment.

Editor Dhirendra Nath Chakraborty and Executive Editor Atanu Bhuyan, proprietor R P Bora, and publisher Pranab Kumar Talukdar were sentenced for an article carried on March 21.

Speaker Ganesh Kutum pronounced the order after the paper refused to bow down before the assembly.

Earlier, the speaker had ordered the accused, except the executive editor, to pay a fine of Rs 100. But as they refused to pay, the speaker modified his order to a one-day sentence.

The executive editor was not given a chance to pay the fine as he was held more responsible than the others.

The three have been lodged in the Guwahati jail.

When brought to a specially erected witness box in the assembly, Chakraborty argued with the speaker saying he was not given a chance to put across his views in the hearing. The speaker, however, did not allow him to speak.

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