'Pratibimba Live' website suspended after 'conspiracy' against Himanta Biswa, daughter

GUWAHATI:  The official website of 'Pratibimba Live', the Guwahati based news portal which landed in the soup after posting 'salacious' videos about Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, has been suspended.

 

If one logs into the news organization's official website (https://www.pratibimbalive.com/), he/she will be informed that it has been suspended 'due to non-payment.'

 

The media organization's Youtube and Facebook accounts, however, remain operational.

 

Assam Police, which is said to be investigating the case, says that it is "unsure" how the page was suspended.

 

 

"I am not sure when and how the page got suspended. I have not logged into the website myself," said Munna Prasad Gupta, the commissioner of Guwahati Police.

 

'Pratibimba Live' landed in the soup after the organization used a picture of Himanta Biswa Sarma hugging his daughter without mentioning who she was.

 

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Following the incident, Sarma later told newsmen that he was unable to sleep at night and claimed that the episode was a "political conspiracy" hatched by his rivals.

 

"It is really unfortunate that my rivals can stoop so low in order to create a political conspiracy. They have been unable to take me down, which is why they are trying to defame my image by linking me with women. This time, they have used my minor daughter which is sad," the Minister had said, reacting to the incident.

 

Although the organization later issued an apology via another video, netizens did not take kindly to its maligning of the father'-daughter relationship.

 

After the picture went viral on social media, a police complaint was lodged by a family member of the politician, besides several others in various police stations in different parts of the state.

 

A total of six arrests have been made -- four in Guwahati, one at Golaghat and the other one at Sivasagar.

 

Editor-in-Chief Taufiquddin Ahmad and news editor Iqbal, along with two other employees of Pratibimba Live, Puli Muchchary associated with Bodoland Digital and Nang Noyonmoni Gogoi associated with Spotlight Assam have been booked under Section 509 of IPC (insulting modesty of a woman) and sections 14 and 21 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.