The Hindu : Retired judge to probe attack on scribes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 09, 2002

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Retired judge to probe attack on scribes

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD April 8. Justice S. D. Dave, retired judge of the Gujarat High Court, will constitute a one-man judicial inquiry commission to probe into the circumstances leading to the police lathicharge on a group of journalists at the Sabarmati Gandhi Ashram here on Sunday.

The commission has been given three week's time to submit its report.

Nearly a dozen journalists, particularly from the electronic media, were injured in the lathicharge on a group of people who were objecting to the presence of the Narmada Bachao Andolan leader, Medha Patkar, in a peace initiative meeting at the ashram.

The decision to appoint the commission was taken at a meeting the Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, had with senior Home Department and police officials here.

Inspector suspended

The Government today suspended the Inspector of the Sabarmati police station, P. R. Mehra, while ordering the transfer of the Joint Commissioner of Police, Shivanand Jha, and the Deputy Commissioner, V. N. Pargi. They would be given new postings in a day or two.

The transfer of Mr. Jha, however, surprised the local journalists who pointed out that the Joint Commissioner had actually tried to protect the mediamen from the police onslaught and had not ordered the lathicharge. His transfer apparently was at the behest of some local BJP leaders who were unhappy with Mr. Jha taking an upright stand during the communal riots.

The local journalists held a rally on the busy Ashram road condemning the police lathicharge and demanded suitable action to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. They also gheraoed the Chief Minister and raised anti-police slogans when Mr. Modi came here to attend some meetings.

The police action against the journalists was also widely condemned by various political parties, social organisations and others while many political leaders also criticised the organisers of the peace initiative meeting for allowing the Narmada Bachao Andolan leader, Medha Patkar, to attend it as that "sparked the disturbances leading to the lathicharge".

The State president of the BJP, Rajendrasinh Rana, and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, while condemning the police action accused Ms. Patkar of creating disturbances when the elusive peace had started returning to the trouble-torn State. The VHP said it would not give call for any other programme till peace completely returned.

Gujarat remained totally incident-free today and except in Modasa, curfew was relaxed in all other cities and towns. In Ahmedabad, curfew was relaxed for 12 hours from 7 a.m. in the walled city areas while only night curfew remained in force in other areas.

In Baroda, only night curfew is in force while curfew was relaxed in phases in Visnagar, Lunawada, Chaklasi and some other towns which were under indefinite curfew for the last few days.

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