In a POCSO (Protection of children from sexual offences) special court in Patna, Nikhil Priyadarshi (son of a retired IAS officer) is undertrial for a case of sexual exploitation. During the investigation of the case, names of Sanjeet Kumar Sharma and Brajesh Pandey have also surfaced out. As reported, a minor daughter of a former minister of Bihar Congress has alleged that Nikhil, Sanjeet and Brajesh had been running a sex racket.
Who is Brajesh Pandey?
Brajesh Pandey is a Congress leader who fights from an East Champaran constituency. Daughter of a Congress leader accusing another Congress leader for running sex rackets, that too under a SC/ST police station makes this case very unfortunate and very special. However, there is one more angle to this incident. Brajesh Pandey is also a sibling of the noted NDTV journalist Ravish Kumar. This was highlighted by many on the twitter.
https://twitter.com/TajinderBagga/status/833259326554923008
https://twitter.com/Tan_Tripathi/status/833286522464006144
https://twitter.com/malviyamit/status/833277189734940672
Though Ravish Kumar is known for his anti-BJP and pro-AAP stands, he manages to maintain a super-journo image. Through his sarcasm loaded attacks and theatrics like mime and dark-screens, he has emerged as a powerful voice against the government. Ravish is bold, informed and vocal, however, with a conditional clause.
Ravish chases establishments primarily when there is a BJP government or there is a scope of BJP government coming into power. For example, Ravish, who used to travel into streets and jhuggis of Delhi before AAP was into the government has completely deprioritized poverty and crime of Delhi after AAP came into power. A similar pattern was seen in Bihar too.
Ravish often accuses BJP supporters for strangulating voice of the media. This time, neither BJP leaders nor BJP supporters were into the picture and yet media maintained a pin-drop silence. Some cases related to sexual molestation are fraudulent, but the apathy of media for a “minor SC/ST girl molestation case” is quite shocking.
Apart from a 5-liner report in Dainik Jagran and a story in Times of India, there is no mention of the event, not even by NDTV. Recently, Ravish Kumar was also in controversy when he tried to pass off Congress leaders as neutral commentators on demonetisation. It will be interesting to see if this time Ravish Kumar places ethics over bias and pariwarwaad.