The Price of Asking Questions

By Manoj Thakur

Karnal: In June 2023, a staffer at the Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC), Karnal, handed over a document to journalist Rinku Narwal (37), a district reporter for a prominent Hindi newspaper’s digital section.

The internal letter, dated May 22, 2023, was sent by the Director of KCGMC to the Head of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. It sought the names of faculty members to be registered under the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, for conducting antenatal ultrasounds.

The letter stated: “Presently, no radiologist is available at KCGMC, and all the patients requiring USG [Ultrasound Sonography] are being sent to outside centres on government expenses. Pregnant patients visiting KCGMC, Karnal, requiring an ultrasound are facing a lot of difficulties due to the non-availability of the USG facility…The institute is earning a bad name despite having ultrasound machines.”

Following standard practice, Narwal said he verified the document and its implications independently through his sources within the hospital.

When he tried to get an official response, College Director Dr Jagdish Dureja didn't answer his phone. He further contacted Dr Himanshu Madan, the then Chief Medical Officer, who told him he was on duty in Khanpur and advised Narwal to speak to the Public Relations Officer (PRO) instead. The PRO, Jayant Kumar, did not comment on the matter. 

This information formed the basis of a news report that Narwal wrote for his organisation’s website. 

“The document indicated that despite having the required equipment, ultrasound services were being denied to the patients due to a lack of staff — which is what I filed in my report,” Narwal told 101Reporters.

Booked

Within two weeks of the report being published, KCGMC Director Dr Jagdish Dureja and his wife, Dr Sangeeta Dureja, filed a complaint against Narwal. 

The complaint alleged that Narwal had removed a patient’s Aadhaar card copy from her medical file at the hospital and “misused it for ulterior motives”.

Based on this complaint, a first information report was registered against Narwal at the Karnal Civil Police Station under Sections 379 (theft) and 419 (cheating by personation) of the Indian Penal Code.

The complaint further alleged that Narwal had used information related to a woman named Kamlesh in his news report on the lack of ultrasound services at KCGMC. The complaint also cited the link to the published article as part of the evidence.

Narwal’s report does not mention any woman named Kamlesh or any other patient or their medical records. 

“These were baseless accusations,” Narwal’s lawyer, Sanjeev Mangalora, said, adding that the police moved to file serious criminal charges. “The letter was a public document, not confidential. This is how journalists work: they collect evidence through sources. There was no theft here,” he added. 

When Narwal learned that an FIR had been filed against him, he did not initially worry. 

“I thought they’d ask me a few questions and close the file,” he said. “The documents I used were authentic, and the report was in public interest.”

Senior Advocate Jagmal Singh Jatain explained that a specific “system” often operates in such investigations. “In Rinku Narwal’s case, there must have been complicity from senior police officers at some level,” Jatain stated. “When senior officers realised that Assistant Sub Inspector Pawan Kumar couldn’t legally implicate Rinku Narwal, they changed the investigation and handed it over to the then ASI Bansi Lal.”

Jatain said this was a common practice. “The SHO [Station House Officer] can assign an investigation to anyone they wish.”

“The moment Bansi Lal took charge, the pressure began,” Narwal said. “He started calling repeatedly. The police conducted raids at my home and office to arrest me.”

Narwal approached the Karnal district court for anticipatory bail, but it was rejected on September 20, 2023. The court stated that because he was accused of theft, he should be taken into custody for questioning.

“This is when I realised I needed legal help,” Narwal recalled.

See Also: Fear and Loathing in Lower Courts: The Bail Edition

In court

On the advice of a few acquaintances, Narwal got in touch with Mangalora, who was a well-known lawyer in the area. “He listened to me patiently and believed in me,” Narwal recalled. “Which made all the difference.”

Mangalora moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court. On October 5, 2023, the court granted Narwal interim bail, stating that this was not a case warranting Narwal’s immediate arrest. The court directed that the journalist should not be arrested and instructed him to cooperate with the investigation. It also issued a notice to the police, asking them to explain why they sought his custody.

Soon after, the investigating officer submitted a response to the High Court, alleging Narwal was not cooperating. On December 18, 2023, Narwal received a summons from Karnal police, again accusing him of non-cooperation. 

Mangalora said, “Rinku was cooperating fully. The police were just trying to manufacture grounds for his arrest to revoke his bail.”

Narwal said he had appeared before the police for nearly two hours. “They kept asking me to name doctors who had a grudge against the director,” he added. “They wanted to know who my sources were.”

Mangalora called this line of questioning a direct violation of press freedom. “No journalist is legally bound to disclose their sources,” he said. 

Escalation

The pressure on Narwal only escalated as the police invoked additional charges against him under IPC sections 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 371 (habitual dealing in slaves), and 120B (criminal conspiracy). 

As is common in ongoing investigations, police exercised their discretion to arbitrarily add new sections before filing the final chargesheet.

Narwal said the investigating officer insisted he was not cooperating, claiming he was “behaving like a habitual offender”. The officer argued before the court that since Narwal wasn’t answering questions to their satisfaction, he needed to be arrested for interrogation. 

Mangalora recalled how meeting his client became a special assignment. “Rinku would come to meet me late at night, hiding from the police,” Mangalora said. “He was constantly living in fear of being jailed.”

After three hearings, in January 2024, Narwal was finally granted regular bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The court found no basis for his arrest, directing him to continue cooperating with the investigation and appear before the police when summoned. Despite repeated claims of non-cooperation, police failed to submit any proof to the court.

Even after securing bail, Narwal said the psychological toll remains. “I can’t work as a journalist the way I used to,” he said. “There’s always a fear that I’ll be implicated in another false case.”

See Also: Complainants in Petty Theft Cases Bear the Brunt of Police Interrogation

From the front row

With Narwal in hiding and his phone off, Manisha Narwal (34) managed everything alone: meeting lawyers, arranging funds, and navigating court proceedings. “I had never even stepped out of the house for such things before,” she said. 

Their children were kept in the dark. “We couldn’t tell them what was going on,” she said. “They’re too young to understand.”

The family borrowed Rs 2 lakh from relatives to keep the case going. Securing Narwal’s bail cost more than Rs 4 lakh. This sum included legal fees and miscellaneous expenses such as court travel and preparing documents. 

“And the case is still dragging on,” she added.

Expert speak

Advocate Mangalora said this case highlights a systemic flaw. He said the problem lies in how FIRs are treated. “An FIR is not proof of guilt—but in our system, it’s often treated that way. Once registered, the investigating officer has unchecked power. If they choose to misuse it, there’s little immediate accountability." Even if an officer oversteps, seeking redressal is exhausting. "By the time an innocent person tries to hold the police accountable, they’re out of money, time, and strength," he said. 

Mangalora added, “There must be better training for police personnel on the role and limitations of an FIR. They should be taught that an FIR is just the beginning of an investigation.”

He also advocated for internal accountability: “If an officer harasses an innocent person, there should be consequences. Department-level reforms are essential. Only then can we prevent police excesses.”

Jatain, who regularly handles media-related cases, said the targeting of journalists in Haryana is not new. “For the past 11 years, there’s been a growing trend—any journalist who dares to report critically on the government finds themselves caught in a legal case,” he told 101Reporters.

“If no legitimate charge sticks, the police often book journalists under vague accusations like threats, intimidation, or even demanding bribes,” he explained.

Advocate & Founder Director of Internet Freedom Foundation, Apar Gupta, who provides pro bono legal advice, assistance, and representation to Indian journalists through the Digital Patrakar Defence Clinic, said that civil and criminal defamation complaints are a constant feature of their caseload. “In addition to this, a large number of journalists today face digital censorship. We also see use of offences against the State and public order, such as sedition (earlier Section 124A IPC), UAPA and provisions on promoting enmity or hurting religious sentiments.”

He admitted that under existing laws, there were no safeguards specific to journalism. Instead, journalists have to rely on constitutional rights to free speech and profession, due process protections around arrest and search, and the ability to seek quashing of FIRs or anticipatory bail from High Courts when cases are clearly retaliatory. “In practice, harassment continues with impunity because the costs of misusing the system are low, the risks of independent reporting are high, and the protections that do exist are largely reactive and depend on a journalist having the resources to litigate.”

Jatain also said the challenges faced by journalists are compounded by a lack of institutional support. He added, “Narwal’s job was saved only because he wasn’t taken into custody. If the arrest had happened, there was a strong chance he would have been fired."

In Narwal’s case, Jatain noted how his lack of government accreditation was weaponised against him. "He was labelled a fake journalist. But who is a real journalist? Is government recognition the only criterion? Many credible journalists work independently without official accreditation," he said. 

This story was produced for and originally published as part of the Crime and Punishment project in collaboration with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

This article was originally published in 101 Reporters under Creative Common license. Read the original article.

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