Date:07/03/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/07/stories/2007030710011200.htm

National

Journalists assaulted outside jail

Alka Kshirsagar

They were covering the release on bail of six of 273 arrested

PUNE: Mediapersons covering the release on bail of six of the 273 people arrested during Sunday's rave were assaulted outside the Yerawada jail late on Tuesday.

The Sahara TV crew's camera was wrecked and the cameraman was seriously injured. The attackers were reportedly relatives of some of those released.

Though all the 273, remanded to judicial custody by the Judicial Magistrate, First Class, were granted bail by the sessions court on Monday, only six, including two women, were released on Tuesday. This was on account of a delay in completing the necessary paper work.

The names of the attackers, who reportedly arrived on the scene in a car, were given as Mohammed Sayyad Abdul Sayyad, Yunus Mohammed Sayyad, Shaikh Anees and Iqbal Chiniwala Taher. All of them escaped subsequently. A complaint of assault was filed at the Jail Road police station.

On Monday night, Additional Sessions Judge R.V. Deshmukh granted bail to the 273 people on a surety of Rs.15,000 and ordered them to furnish one local guarantor. While six of them spent only a day in prison, the remaining have to wait their turn for release as the process of furnishing a bail bond takes time.

They were booked under Section 27 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (consumption and possession) and Section 294 of the IPC.

Seven of those in police custody were questioned and some important leads, including cell phone numbers of an organised drug racket, were unearthed, police sources said.