Times Now journalist Dev Kotak beaten up, attacked by over 100 people at CJP protest site

A Times Now reporter, covering the ongoing CJP protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, was physically assaulted by a large mob on Tuesday, July 21, while attempting to interview one of the protest organisers, raising fresh concerns over the safety of journalists reporting from agitation sites.

The Times Now reporter, Dev Kotak, said he had been covering the protest for the past 23 days and was well known to many of the organisers and volunteers of Cockroach Janta Party, having conducted interviews with several members of the pressure group during the period.

According to Kotak, the incident occurred when he and his cameraman, Rajesh Sharma, arrived at the protest site to interview CJP co-founder Saurav Das.

While Das was speaking on stage, Kotak said they waited patiently for their turn to interact. As the situation at the venue escalated, volunteers allegedly advised the media team to leave temporarily and return after about an hour when the situation had calmed down. However, as Kotak and his cameraman were walking towards the Jantar Mantar garden side, they were allegedly surrounded by protesters who began shouting slogans and hurled slurs on them.

“Just as we were getting out and going towards the Jantar Mantar garden side, we started getting heckled,” Kotak said.

"What began as verbal heckling quickly turned into physical violence," Kotak said, adding, “There were slaps, kicks, punches and even water bottles thrown at us."

Recounting the horror, Kotak further stated that more than 100 people were part of the mob that attacked him. "They kept saying, 'You don't tell our story. You are dishonest.' They accused the media of not fairly representing their cause," the scribe said.

Kotak, who has been covering the CJP protest from Day-1 right from ground zero over the past three weeks, said, “Out of the three co-founders, I have interviewed Saurav Das and Abhijeet Dipke. Having met both of them on several occasions, the members also know me. The volunteers were behind the barricade, closer to the stage and I was on the unprotected side where the mob furry was coming onto me. It was a case of mob lynching. They kept hitting and punching me throughout as I tried to make my way out. More people kept coming.”

The reporter said that during the assault, his shirt and jeans were torn, his watch was snatched, his mobile phone went missing and his spectacles were forcibly taken away.

"I wear glasses all the time and pleaded with them to leave them because I cannot see without them. But they snatched them away. At one point, I could feel someone pulling my phone out of my pocket," Kotak said.

He further said that he was knocked to the ground while attempting to escape. Kotak said a group of protesters eventually intervened and formed a human shield around him, allowing him to escape safely. "Some protesters protected me, pulled me up and helped me get out. Their intervention probably saved my life," he said.

The assault has sparked concerns over the safety of journalists covering protests and public demonstrations. While criticism of media coverage is not uncommon, attacks on journalists performing their professional duties raise serious questions about press freedom and the ability of reporters to safely cover events on the ground.