Agartala: Tripura police have arrested a journalist from Sodepur in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on charges of maligning Chief Minister Manik Saha and his family members through his online channels, the police said.
A team of Tripura police Crime Branch arrested journalist Saikat Talapatra from a rented house at Muragachha in Sodepur on Friday, said a police official.
He was later brought to Agartala by flight on a transit remand. Multiple cases have been registered against Talapatra at many police stations in Tripura.
After getting bail from a Tripura court in one of the cases, he went to Kolkata and allegedly did not cooperate with the investigating officers, forcing the court to issue a non-bailable warrant against Talapatra last year.
Since 2021, Tripura police teams had gone to Kolkata on a number of occasions to arrest him, but Talapatra was absconding even as he continued to slander the state politicians on a regular basis.
Talapatra, who had once been a full-time teacher of the Tripura government but lost his job for dereliction of duty, also worked as the key anchor of a local television channel before 2020.