The Hindu : SC to hear journalist's plea on Jan. 20

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Saturday, Jan 11, 2003

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SC to hear journalist's plea on Jan. 20

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI JAN. 10. The Supreme Court will hear on January 20 a writ petition filed by R.R. Gopal, Editor of the Tamil bi-weekly Nakkeeran, to restrain the Tamil Nadu police from falsely implicating him in two cases involving forest brigand Veerappan, including the one relating to the kidnap of film star Rajkumar.

A three-judge Bench, comprising Justice S. Rajendra Babu, Justice Brijesh Kumar and Justice G.P. Mathur, posted the case for hearing to January 20 after it was "mentioned" by senior counsel K. Subramaniam for early hearing.

Appearing for Mr. Gopal, counsel told the Bench that the journalist was being harassed and intimidated by the Tamil Nadu police.

Also, photographs of police keeping a watch on his house had been enclosed with the petition.

He said the "the freedom of the Press is in peril in Tamil Nadu and journalist organisations had condemned the action of police".

He urged the court to take up the matter immediately and direct police to withdraw the surveillance. However, the Bench posted the case for hearing on January 20.

However, senior counsel for Tamil Nadu, C.S. Vaidyanathan, informed the Bench that two writ petitions filed by Mr. Gopal had already been dismissed.

In his petition, Mr. Gopal submitted that since December 2001, attempts were made to implicate him in two cases including the Rajkumar kidnap case and he had been granted anticipatory bail by the High Court.

He said in the first week of December last, the former DGP of Karnataka, C. Dinakar, published a book "Veerappan's Prize catch: Rajkumar", wherein several defamatory imputations had been made against him.

He alleged that from the evening of December 27, a posse of policemen in three vans were waiting near his residence, indulging in surveillance and presumably looking for opportunities to abduct him.

He recalled how a reporter of his magazine, Sivasubramaniam, was kidnapped and implicated in several cases and apprehended that he would also be kidnapped and subjected to further investigation by foisting some material against him.

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