French journalists labelled spies over Indian mining investigation

Arthur Bouvart and Jules Giraudat took up assignment after Indian journalists threatened

Two French journalists have been labelled spies and are the subject of a criminal investigation after they tried to report on sand mining in south India - an assignment they took up because Indian journalists had been threatened for reporting on the issue.

Arthur Bouvart and Jules Giraudat arrived in Tamil Nadu state in November to investigate the environmental impact of mining sand, a resource that has become scarce and increasingly lucrative amid a decades-long Asian construction boom.