About the Human Rights Defenders: Mr. Bappi Ray, Mr. Pawan, Mr. Shivendu Trivedi, Mr. Dharmendra Singh, and Mr. Manish Singh are local journalists who are working for different news channels. • Mr. Bappi Ray has been working with Zee TV Chhattisgarh for last eight years and then with Bharat 24 TV Channel. For the last 2 years he has been working with YouTube Channel Main Bastar. • Mr. Pawan was working with Bharat TV. • Mr. Shivendu works with Bappi Ray as his cameraperson. • Mr. Manish Singh was working with Aaj Tak TV Channel.

Background of the incident: Konta is a town located on the border of the states of Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. Illegal sand mining is rampant in Shabri river in Konta town. This illegal sand mining is done by politically powerful people called the sand mafia. Five journalists-- Mr. Pawan, Mr. Bappi Ray, Mr. Shivendu Trivedi, Mr. Dharmendra Singh, Mr. Manish Singh working for local tv channels decided to investigate this illegal sand mining activity.

on august 09, 2024, all the five journalists mr. pawan, mr. bappi ray, mr. shivendu trivedi, mr. dharmendra singh, and mr. manish singh went to konta town in chhattisgarh, where they were investigating illegal sand being smuggled to the state of andhra pradesh in collusion with the police department. at 3 pm, the journalists saw a truck carrying sand going towards the chhattisgarh-andhra border and they asked the truck driver to show his government pass to transport sand from chhattisgarh to andhra pradesh. however, the truck driver didn’t have relevant papers. at around 4:00 pm, station house officer (sho) of konta, mr. ajay sonkar, along with a sand contractor, reached there on a motorbike and started arguing and threatening the journalists. mr. ray phoned the dig, mr. kamal lochan kashyap, and told him about the illegal mining and the dig told him to report it to the mining department. the station house officer mr. sonkar took the truck to konta police station and all the journalists followed the truck to the police station. meanwhile, they received a phone call from sho sunil singh of phool bangdi sukma district who told mr. bappi ray not to interfere in the matter as sho ajay sonkar is his friend. the journalists left the truck at the police station and went to murli lodge in konta town where the police station in-charge ajay shankar and his staff checked the lodge and surroundings. at around 11:30 pm, the journalists went to have dinner at raju dhaba in konta and returned to their hotel at 1 am. meanwhile, the journalists sent a photo of the sand transport pass to mr. vijay sharma, the home minister of chhattisgarh. later, mr. bappi ray alleged that a video clip went viral in which sho ajay sonkar is seen with another cop standing near his parked car outside his hotel at night. he said that his car is very old and can’t be locked from outside, so it always remains open. the next morning at 10 am all four journalists went to have breakfast at andhra pradesh chatti village and drove back towards konta town. suddenly, five plainclothes policemen on three bikes stopped the journalists’ car. they asked them where they were coming from and then asked them to open the boot of the car. the plainclothes policemen snatched the car keys and mobile phones of all the journalists and asked them to open the boot. according to mr. ray, when he opened the boot of the car, he saw some well-made packets lying in the car boot chamber. a policeman tore one of the packets and declared that it was ganja (marijuana). the police asked mr. ray to sit with them on a bike and the rest of the three in his car, which was being driven by a plainclothes policeman. they all were taken to chinturu police station in asr district, andhra pradesh. the police asked the journalists to hold those packets. mr. ray refused to touch those packets but his two colleagues held them. all the journalists were locked in the police lock-up. after one hour, they were taken out and beaten up with a leather belt (called ‘pataa’). mr. ray was hit by the pataa three times, while the other three colleagues were hit twice. the police told them to rub themselves against the wall to remove the pataa marks. the police threatened mr. ray that they would kill him in a fake encounter (extra-judicial killing). the scared journalists tried to explain that they didn’t know about the ganja. the sho took the journalists in his car and went to murli lodge konta and saw a cctv recording. then sho chinturu went to konta police station in chhattisgarh and met sho konta-ajay sonkar. later the journalists were taken back to chinturu police station in andhra pradesh and were given a blanket. the next day, some journalists came and met mr. ray and others at chinturu police station. the additional superintendent of police in sukma district came and talked to the journalists and enquired about the whole sequence of events. on august 12, 2024, at 2 am, the sho of chinturu came and woke up the journalists and asked them to come with his police team. the journalists feared that they were going to get killed in a fake encounter right then. the police took their car and another car and took them to chetti village. there they were told to say that they were arrested the same day at 2 pm and not three days earlier. the police carried a weighing machine. they weighed the packets and an officer took their signatures. the journalists were then taken back to chinturu police station. on august 12, at around 10 am, all four journalists were taken to chinturu government hospital for a medical check-up and then to rampasodawaram sub-division court. at around 3 pm, they were taken to rajmendri court. at rajmendri court, they were sent to judicial custody until august 23. at 10 at night, they were taken to rajmendri jail. on september 3, 2024, all were granted bail. the journalists allege that on september 11, sho konta ajay sonkar, along with p vijay, a local politician, went to murli lodge and threatened them and took the hard drive of the cctv recorder, and then the sho konta destroyed these two hard drives. later, an fir was lodged against sho konta mr. ajay sonkar for destroying the cctv footage, and he was arrested and sent to jail. all the journalists have to report at chinturu police station every week.