Journalist Dilwar Hussain Mozumder was on Saturday released from the Guwahati Central Jail, a day after he got bail in the second case against him, The Hindu reported.

On Friday, a city court granted bail to Mozumder in the second case against him, which pertains to allegations of trespassing into a bank. However, he was not released on Friday as the order was passed in the evening, and bail formalities were yet to be completed, The Indian Express reported.

On Wednesday, Mozumder was granted bail in a separate case. However, he was arrested again the next day in the second case against him based on a complaint by the managing director of the Assam Co-operative Apex Bank.

Mozumder, a journalist with digital news outlet The CrossCurrent, had on Tuesday sought to ask questions to Dombaru Saikia, the managing director of the Assam Co-operative Apex Bank, regarding alleged irregularities.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is a director of the Assam Cooperative Apex Bank and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Biswajit Phukan is its chairman.

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 first case filed by a security guard at the bank, on charges of criminal intimidation and under provisions of the 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. 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.

In his complaint, Saikia claimed that the journalist had trespassed on to 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.

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.

Mozumder was not arrested in matters related to journalism, Sarma added.

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