Date:09/11/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/11/09/stories/2003110908250100.htm

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

T.N. policemen intercept N. Ram's car

By K.V. Subramanya

The Joint Managing Director of the The Hindu, N. Murali, explaining to the Bangalore Police Commissioner, S. Mariswamy, about the incident that took place while they were on their way to the hotel where a reception had been arranged in connection with the 125th anniversary celebration of the paper on Saturday. The Editor-in-Chief, N. Ram, looks on. The driver of the vehicle is seen at right. — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BANGALORE NOV. 8. A day after a police team virtually invaded the offices of The Hindu in Chennai, a carload of policemen, identified by the Bangalore police as personnel from Tamil Nadu, intercepted the car in which N. Ram, the Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, N. Murali, the Joint Managing Director, and their wives were travelling in the heart of Bangalore on Saturday night.

The police team, comprising six plainclothes personnel, sought to search the car, presumably for those against whom the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker, K. Kalimuthu, had passed orders sentencing them to 15 days simple imprisonment for "breach of privilege" of the Assembly. According to the Bangalore City Commissioner of Police, S. Mariswamy, the car was intercepted near ITC Windsor Sheraton & Towers, the venue of the reception, on Sankey Road around 8.40 p.m. by the Chennai police team which came in an Ambassador car. The vehicle veered in front and blocked the car in which Mr. Ram and others were travelling. The policemen, one of them wearing a safari suit, forced open the door of the car and looked inside. One of the intruders snatched the car keys. Challenged, one of the intruders was heard saying in Tamil, "vittudungo''(let them go). After confirming that those for whom they were looking were not in the vehicle, they left the place, Mr. Mariswamy said.

Mr. Ram and the others were on their way to attend a reception hosted by The Hindu at the hotel after participating in the 125th anniversary celebrations of the newspaper held at the B.R. Ambedkar Bhavan.

The Bangalore police tonight registered a case of wrongful restraint and unlawful assembly under Sections 143 and 147 of the Indian Penal Code. The case has been registered at the High Grounds police station. As the identity of the intruders was not known, nobody had been named in the case so far, police said.

Earlier in the day, a Deputy Commissioner of Police from Chennai had met Mr. Mariswamy and sought the assistance of the Bangalore police to arrest the people against whom warrants had been issued.

Mr. Mariswamy had told presspersons in the morning that a small police team from Chennai had accompanied the DCP, who was carrying with him a copy of the warrants. However, no one had been arrested in Bangalore. Sources said, the Chennai police had come here anticipating that the Publisher, the Editor, the Executive Editor, the Chief of Bureau (Tamil Nadu) and a Special Correspondent of The Hindu, against whom warrants had been issued, might participate in the celebrations.