BHUBANESWAR

23 October 2018 19:44 IST

The writer recently courted controversy over his remarks about the Sun Temple and legislators of Odisha

Delhi-based defence analyst and journalist Abhijit Iyer-Mitra, who had courted controversy over his remarks on the Sun Temple in Konark, was arrested in Bhubaneswar in another case on Tuesday.

Mr. Iyer-Mitra’s counsel Nikhil Mehra told The Hindu over phone that the journalist was arrested in a case that related to a conversation on Twitter involving several people about the origin of Rasagola and Odisha more than a year ago.

Mr. Iyer-Mitra was arrested by the Saheed Nagar police after he was questioned in connection with the case registered on September 20 under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 294, 295A and 500, and Section 67 of the Information Technology Act.

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Earlier, the Saheed Nagar police questioned of Mr. Iyer-Mitra hours after he appeared before a Odisha Assembly House Committee headed by Leader of Opposition Narasingha Mishra. Five other legislators – Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, Debiprasad Mishra, Pramila Mallick, Arun Kumar Sahoo and Sanjay Kumar Das Burma – who are members of the Committee were also present.

The House Committee had summoned Mr. Iyer-Mitra for breach of privilege for allegedly making derogatory remarks against the State legislators in social media in the wake of the controversy over his video post against the backdrop of the Konark temple. He later apologised for his remarks in an email to the Speaker of the State Assembly.

Mr. Mishra said the defence analyst will appear before the Committee again on November 2 as proceedings against him remained inconclusive.

The case against Mr. Iyer-Mitra in connection with his video post in which he allegedly made offensive remarks on the architecture of the Sun temple has been registered at Konark.

Mr. Iyer-Mitra was earlier arrested by Odisha police in Delhi, but a court there had denied permission to police to bring him on transit remand. Instead, the court had granted Mr. Iyer-Mitra limited bail and asked him to join the investigation. Subsequently, he denied regular bail by the Supreme Court.