JACOBABAD/SUKKUR, June 22: TV reporter Mukesh Rupeta and his cameraman Sanjay Kumar were produced in the court of a civil judge here on Thursday, three months after they had been detained for filming the Jacobabad airbase, designated as a sensitive area.
Members of their families, close relatives and friends were in the court. The two had been handed over on Wednesday to the Jacobabad Airport police station and a case was registered against them under sections 471, 465 and 419 of the PPC and section 3-A of the Official Secrets Act.
The court remanded them in police custody for seven days.
Mr Rupeta’s counsel Ashok Kumar informed the court that his client was in a very bad shape and required immediate medical treatment. The court accepted the request and asked police to do the needful. Mr Rupeta was moved by police to the jail ward of the civil hospital in Jacobabad.
A member of the family said that Mr Rupeta was in such a bad condition that his wife Pushpa Devi and children did not recognise him when they saw him in the court. His mother also met him before he was taken to the hospital.
AFP adds: “Both of them have been arrested under the Official Secrets Act and on other criminal charges,” Jacobabad’s police officer Manzoor Khoso said.
Mr Rupeta alleged that he had been mistreated in custody and said the charges against him were false.
“I can’t tell you what they have done to me. I thought I would be killed the way they treated me. I cannot tell you all from the lock-up,” a weeping Mr Rupeta told AFP from a mobile phone of a fellow correspondent who visited him.
The confirmation of the arrests came a day after Geo Television expressed concern for Mr Rupeta’s safety.
