Two Madhya Pradesh-based journalists were released on Saturday (October 18, 2025), a day after they were detained from Bhopal by the Rajasthan Police for allegedly running “fake and defamatory news stories” on the State’s Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari and “demanding” ₹5 crore to remove them.
On Friday (October 17), a team of the Jaipur Police had detained ‘The Sootr’ news portal’s editor in chief Anand Pandey and its managing editor Harish Divekar from Bhopal and taken them to Rajasthan, prompting a series of backlash from various journalists across the two States as well as from leaders of the Opposition Congress.
Jaipur Additional Commissioner of Police Manish Agrawal told The Hindu that Mr. Pandey and Mr. Divekar were released on Saturday evening after interrogation and that no formal arrest was made in the case.
“We have let them go after the questioning for now but the investigation will continue in the case,” Mr. Agrawal said, adding that the two can be called for questioning again in required.
A spokesperson at ‘The Sootr’ said that the duo was released around 6 p.m. and “nothing concrete was found to prove the reports false”.
