Ramesh Rath, a senior journalist with OTV in Odisha, was picked up by the police on October 15, one day after he published a report criticising chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
OTV reported that Rath was "forcibly picked up" and taken to an "undisclosed location". His phone was confiscated, the channel said, and he wasn't allowed to telephone his family members.
Rath's report had poked holes in chief minister Naveen Patnaik's aerial survey of flood-affected areas in August, citing RTI responses that a helicopter had taken off that day only for 19 minutes.
However, the police told the Print that Rath had been detained "in connection with a case pertaining to the circulation of an obscene video clip of a sitting female MP". The clip had been circulated last year, the Print reported, and one of the accused "had named Rath as the one who provided the video details".
OTV is owned by Jagi Mangat Panda, the wife of Baijayant "Jay" Panda, the state vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Opposition in Odisha has criticised Rath's detention as "political vendetta". Senior Congress MLA Sura Routray slammed the chief minister for harassing OTV, Hindustan Times reported, and Leader of the Opposition Pradipta Naik, who is a BJP member, called it a "blatant misuse of power by a dictatorial regime".
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