New Delhi: A journalist, her colleague and a driver were arrested on May 6 in Punjab for allegedly hitting a woman with their car and using casteist slurs against her at an Aam Aadmi Party event that they had gone to cover. The journalist has got bail.Among the three arrested is one Bhawana Kishore who works as a reporter at Times Now Navbharat channel. The other two are the channel’s Mrityunjay Kumar, and the vehicle’s driver Parminder Singh.The three were arrested on the basis of a complaint by a woman who said that a rashly driven car knocked her down, hurting her hand, while she was on her way to attend Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann’s opening of an ‘Aam Aadmi clinic’ in Ludhiana. AAP convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was also allegedly present. The woman told police that an argument ensued between the party in the car and herself, during which casteist slurs were used by the former.Kishore was, notably, not driving the car.The channel has claimed that the AAP government has tried to infringe upon press freedom with the arrest. It has said this is tied to its reporting on the renovations on CM Kejriwal’s official residence.The Punjab and Haryana high court has granted Kishore interim bail till May 8, after a lower court had sent all three to two weeks of judicial remand, Indian Express has reported.In the meantime, Punjab governor Banwarilal Purohit, reported the paper, called on CM Mann and “conveyed his displeasure” over the arrest.Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan, have spoken on behalf of the reporter.Journalists’ bodies, Editors Guild of India and the Press Club of India, have expressed concern over the attitude ofEGI statement on arrest of Times Now journalist by Punjab police pic.twitter.com/J4Hnk1SRIa— Editors Guild of India (@IndEditorsGuild) May 6, 2023Press Club of India condemns the blatant attack on rights of a journalist, @BhawanaKishore to discharge her professional dutyWe demand immediate withdrawal of fake & lopsided charges made against her by Punjab Police and seek Punjab chief minister’s intervention in this matter pic.twitter.com/bfbRqjiZ3N— Press Club of India (@PCITweets) May 6, 2023