RAUTAHAT, Sept 21: Republica's district reporter Madan Thakur was misbehaved by Rautahat's police chief on Wednesday while enquiring about the latest updates of vote counting of Garuda Municipality-3.
The vote count, which was obstructed from 4 am, could not resume till 5 pm leaving the voters clueless of what was happening.
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Police officers and the local election office were allegedly trying to hide the issue as a large number of media persons present has gathered outside the polling booth where the vote counting was taking place.
Instead of taking efforts to solve the problem and resume the vote counting which was halted for 12 hours, Election Officer Nabin Kumar Joshi was found sleeping.
SP Yagya Binod Pokharel, chief of Rautahat Police, snatched Thakur's phone while he was trying to take a photo of Election Officer Joshi while he was asleep. SP Pokharel tried to stop Thakur from doing so by saying such issues should not come in media and instead should be solved within. After taking control of Thakur's phone for half an hour, SP Pokharel then threatened the media persons not to publicize this issue. In addition to that, SP Pokharel made a phone call to the head office of Nepal Republic Media, Kathmandu, and urged not to publish the news.
Meanwhile, Federation of Nepalese Journalists, Rautahat; Bajjika Journalist Association Nepal; Press Chautari and various other organizations have widely criticized the behavior of SP Pokharel saying it was a violation of press freedom.
