Journalists purportedly locked up as UP CM visits hospital, officials deny reports

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's recent visit to a hospital in Moradabad in the weekend has triggered controversy as a group of local journalists who were at the spot alleged that they were locked up in a room to prevent them from asking tough questions.

The opposition, including Congress's Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, lashed out at the state government after the allegations.

In a post on Twitter, Priyanka Gandhi said: "Journalists are being held as hostages, questions are being shielded and problems are being sidelined. The BJP government, which got a majority in the Lok Sabha elections, is turning a blind eye to the questions of the public."

The journalists had alleged that ahead of the CM Yogi’s visit to the hospital, all the journalists who were there at the location were locked up in an emergency room for two hours, reported news agency IANS.

They also claimed that there were guards posted outside the hospital gates by the District Magistrate so that they could not come out in any way during the CM’s visit on Saturday.

Half-an-hour after the Chief Minister left, Singh allegedly came and unlocked the gate, holding the journalists. He also asked mediapersons not to visit the district hospital.

The District Magistrate, however has denied any such incident.

“It is not correct. During inspection, many mediapersons were inside the ward and we simply requested media persons not to go inside the ward," he said.

But he admitted that the police did prevent the journalists from entering -- but only because it would have added chaos to an already crowded situation at the hospital.