Assam-based journalist Dilwar Hussain Mozumder was arrested again on Thursday for allegedly trespassing on a bank, a day after he was granted bail in a separate case.

The second case against him was filed based on a complaint by the managing director of the Assam Co-operative Apex Bank, Mozumder’s lawyer told Scroll.

Mozumder, a journalist with digital news outlet The CrossCurrent, had sought to ask questions to the bank official regarding alleged irregularities on Tuesday. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is a director of the Assam Cooperative Apex Bank and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Biswajit Phukan is its chairman.

Before Mozumder was arrested in the second case, Sarma told reporters on Thursday that two to three cases had been registered against the reporter and he would be arrested in all.

Mozumder was detained by the police on Tuesday after a protest by Jatiya Yuva Shakti, the youth wing of the Assam Jatiya Parishad, against alleged financial irregularities in the bank.

He was subsequently arrested later in the day in the case filed by a security guard at the bank, who alleged criminal intimidation and violation of the 1989 Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act.

The chief judicial magistrate had granted Mozumder bail on Wednesday evening but he remained in the Guwahati Central Jail on Thursday, The Indian Express reported. He was taken to the Pan Bazar police station at 8 pm and arrested in connection with the second case filed by the bank official.

Dombaru Saikia, the bank official Mozumder had approached for a comment on the fraud allegations, claimed that the journalist had trespassed the first floor of the office on Tuesday and attempted to take away documents.

Mozumder fled after the bank staff raised an alarm, Saikia claimed. “During the incident, the accused disturbed the bank’s operations, threatened the employees and made caste-based derogatory remarks towards the security guard,” he alleged.

The Jatiya Yuva Shakti had organised a protest in front of the bank’s headquarters in Guwahati’s Pan Bazar area to demand a high-level inquiry and action against those responsible for the alleged financial mismanagement.

‘Not a journalist’, claims chief minister

Journalists and news associations protested the arrest of Mozumder on Wednesday, calling it an attack on press freedom.

Sarma, however, questioned whether Mozumder could be called a “journalist”, saying that the state government does not formally recognise persons who work in digital news outlets as journalists.

“Legacy media is recognised as journalists by the Assam government,” The Indian Express quoted Sarma as saying. “But YouTube channels, portals – the recognition of these is just something that is being discussed.”

Sarma added: “A decision has not been made on this… We don’t register them, we don’t give them advertisements, we don’t give them ID cards. So this person does not come under the Assam government’s understanding of journalist.”

Mozumder was not arrested in matters related to journalism, Sarma was quoted as saying.

The chief minister said that Mozumder should be considered a businessperson, claiming that he owns a dumper business.

On Wednesday, the Gauhati Press Club criticised Mozumder’s arrest and demanded his immediate release.

The Press Club of India condemned the police’s “highhandedness” in the case, particularly in their refusal to inform Mozumder’s family and his colleagues of the grounds of his detention.

The Editors Guild of India said that “the detention of a journalist while on duty is deeply disturbing” and highlighted that the incident raised “serious concerns about media suppression”.