U.P. police clean chit to ‘namak roti’ video scribe

Jaiswal was booked for ‘tainting’ govt.

The Uttar Pradesh police has given a clean chit to a journalist who was booked for allegedly maligning the image of the State government after he shot a video showing just salt and rotis being served to students of a primary school here.

However, a representative of the village head who was also booked under the same charges in connection with the case, has not been cleared, police said.

The video, shot by journalist Pawan Jaiswal, of Shiur Primary School under Aharaura police station had gone viral on August 22, sparking an Opposition backlash against the BJP government in the State.

The State government had suspended two teachers and a case was registered against Mr. Jaiswal, a journalist with a Hindi daily, and the representative of Hinauta village head Rajkumar Pal for allegedly maligning the image of State government.

The case was registered 10 days after the video went viral.

‘No evidence’

“We have given a clean chit to the journalist as no evidence was found against him during our investigation,” Superintendent of Police Dharamvir Singh said on Thursday.

Mr. Singh said Mr. Jaiswal was called by the gram pradhan’s representative to shoot the video in the school.

The police have filed a chargesheet against the representative of the gram pradhan, the district police chief said.