OSA: Delhi journalist arrested for holding classified defence papers

New Delhi, Sep 19: A Delhi based journalist has been arrested by the Special Cell under the Official Secrets Act on the allegation that he had classified defence related papers with him.

The journalist, Rajeev Sharma had earlier worked with United News of India, The Tribune, Sakaal Times. He had recently written a piece fo the Chinese newspaper Global Times.

"He is a resident of Pitampura, and was arrested by the southwestern range of Special Cell of the Delhi Police. He was produced before the magistrate the next day, following which he was taken into police custody for six days. He was found to be in possession of some defence-related classified documents. Investigation of the case is in progress," DCP(Special Cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said.

His piece in the Global Times titled, 'A rapprochement road map for Beijing and New Delhi benefits both countries,' he had said that the steady deterioration of bilateral relations since the night of May 5, when the latest standoff began, has practically evaporated all the diplomatic gains of the past years in one stroke. The current crisis is the biggest threat to normal ties between the two sides since 1962. It's a lose-lose situation for both.

Their common objective must be to build a better and peaceful future for their peoples and not a military buildup against one another.

Sharma runs a YouTube channel, Rajeev Kishkindha. On the day of his arrest, he had uploaded two videos. One of them was titled, 'China may still do mischief #IndiaChinaFaceOff.'

In this he had said that despite an agreement, reached between the two foreign ministers of India and China, the road to peace is still heavily mined. There is no guarantee that everything will play out as per the script reached between the two countries.

The other video in Hindi speaks about the state of the Indian media. It was meant to be a watchdog, but has become a lapdog of the government, he also said in the video.

On Friday night, Sharma's Twitter account which has 5,300 followers showed the message, 'caution account is temporarily restricted. You're seeing this warning because there has been some unusual activity from this account.'