Odisha: 3 reporters arrested for attacking truck driver transporting cattle

Three journalists of an online news channel were arrested in Odisha's Jajpur district on Monday for allegedly beating up the driver of a truck transporting cattle and trying to extort money from him, police said.

A Bhubaneswar-based NGO was transporting 18 cattle to a cowshed in Jharkhand on Sunday night when the trio stopped the vehicle near Gokarneswar bridge on NH 16 near Jaraka Bazaar, they said.

They allegedly demanded Rs 50,000 from the driver of the vehicle, police said.

The driver tried to convince them that the transportation was legal as he has all necessary documents, which he showed them, police said.

However, they insisted that he should pay up and when the driver expressed his inability, he was trashed, they said.

The driver then filed a complaint with the Dharmasala police station and returned to Bhubaneswar with the vehicle.

''We immediately went to the spot and started an investigation and found that the attackers were some web-based reporters,'' said Saroj Kumar Sahoo, the inspector-in-charge of the Dharmasala police station.

''We then arrested them from their respective homes,'' he said.