Chinmay Dev
Bhagalpur
8.30 pm, August 27, 2007
A cable news programme run by Chinmay Dev in Bhagalpur showed disturbing images of a man accused of snatching a chain being beaten first by the mob and then by the police who even tied him to their motorcycle and dragged him for a distance. But the images had little impact in the town.
Three hours later Zee TV, to which Dev had first provided the footage, aired the story on national network and the following days it was on all channels. Viewers watched in outrage and soon the whole country was debating the role of the police in fighting crime. And the man who shot the now-famous footage became the most wanted man in Bhagalpur.
Chinmay Dev is just 22, but has mastered the tricks of the trade. So on the morning of August 27, a college student called him to tell him that a chain snatcher had been caught near Manaskamna temple in Nathnagar, he immediately rushed to the spot.
‘‘I set my camera rolling. The man—Salim also known as Aurangzeb—was dragged on the road. After a while, two policemen arrived and joined in the beating. They saw me with my camera and asked me to go away. I went behind the crowd and found a place from where the policemen could not see me and continued to shoot,’’ he says, the excitement still to ebb.
After Zee aired the story at 11.30 pm, all channels began calling up Dev frantically. ‘‘I switched off my mobile and virtually went underground. Even the police started looking for me and I got scared. I did not sleep that night,’’ he says.
Finally, on Tuesday morning Dev decided to share the footage with other TV news channels and well, life hasn’t been the same for Dev since.
Brought up and educated in Patna, Dev came to Bhagalpur a year ago with the intention of running a news programme. He had no professional training but started handling the camera over two years ago while working for a local news channel at Patna.
In Bhagalpur he now has a team of some 20 reporters moving around town, armed with small cameras. He even teaches the tricks of the trade to enthusiastic youngsters. His news programme—Progressive Television Network—is shown in Bhagalpur every night at 8:30 on cable. But it has been stopped following his Aurangzeb footage. ‘‘Cable operators have told me to secure a No Objection Certificate from the SDO and only then would they air my programme,’’' he says.
His original tape has been confiscated by the police for investigation and he says he is under constant pressure. ‘‘But I will remain firm,’’ he says.
–J. P. Yadav

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