Noida TV anchor ‘faked’ robbery story due to family reasons, claims police

The Noida journalist had alleged that he was robbed of Rs 5,000 by five unidentified men who he claimed came on two motorcycles and accosted him when he pulled over his SUV briefly around 1 am on Sunday on his way home in Noida Extension.

New Delhi: The Noida Police on Friday (June 25) denied robbery claims made by a senior anchor of a Hindi news channel and said he ‘fabricated’ the story 'due to family reasons'.  The journalist had taken to his Facebook account and alleged a robbery of Rs 5,000 cash by five unidentified men who he said came on two motorcycles when he pulled over his SUV briefly around 1 am on Sunday on his way home in Greater Noida (West) or Noida Extension.

After the journalist’s post on social media went viral, the police immediately took suo moto cognisance into the matter and called him for registering an FIR. As per the police, the senior scribe showed unwillingness to file a police complaint. The Noida police developed doubts after the timeline of incidents as mentioned by the journalist in his lengthy Facebook post did not add up during their investigation. 

महिला मित्र के घर खाने पर गये थे वरिष्ठ पत्रकार और उसके बाद पत्नी का फोन आया और रात Oyo होटल में बिताईं। @noidapolice ने पत्रकार के साथ लूटपाट की घटना को झूठ बताया। pic.twitter.com/0VdvV6KVbG — Jitender Sharma (@capt_ivane) June 25, 2021

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Noida) Ankur Aggarwal told the reporters, “The police probed the case suo moto and found discrepancies in his version of the episode based on electronic evidence, including the CCTV footage. Senior officials visited the alleged incident site for inspection and after a due probe, it appears that no such incident of robbery as alleged took place.” 

The police in its statement said that the journalist had met his female friend for dinner in Noida Sector-45 on June 19, where after receiving a call from his wife he left. Then he went on to stay in an OYO hotel in the same intervening night of June 19-20.  

He concocted a "fake" loot story due to personal family reasons, the police added. 

The female friend told the police that around 1:20 am the journalist had called her up and informed her that he is roaming on the streets to look for an OYO room to stay in for a night. She added that he did not mention the robbery to her. 

“With all the evidence, it is proved that there has been no robbery incident and this fake case was spread on social media by him due to his personal family reasons," the Noida Police said in its statement. 

Meanwhile, Aggarwal said that the police will contact the scribe for his statement in the case. 

(With PTI inputs)