Date:06/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/06/stories/2009010660320100.htm

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Seetaram in judicial custody till January 17

Staff Correspondent

He apprehends ‘danger to his life’ from police

He fears attacks by Bajrang Dal activists in jail
His newspaper office was attacked in November last

B.V. Seetaram

Udupi: Director and chairman of Chitra Publications Pvt Ltd. B.V. Seetaram was remanded in judicial custody till January 17 by the court of the Civil Judge (Junior Division) and Judicial Magistrate First Class here on Monday. He was brought to the court premises in handcuffs, tied to a chain held by a policeman.

Speaking to presspersons here, Mr. Seetaram’s advocate Shashikanth Shetty said that Mr. Seetaram had been arrested near Karkala on Sunday in connection with a defamation case. “We had filed a bail application for his release which the court allowed. Mr. Seetaram was directed to give a self-bond. He refused to do so apprehending danger to his life at the hands of the police and the State Government. He had filed a memo to the court stating that he intended to remain in judicial custody for his personal safety”, Mr. Shetty said.

Human rights

Mr. Seetaram, who is a diabetic, spent Sunday night at the District Government Hospital here. He told presspersons at the court that handcuffing him was in violation of his human rights. “I told the policemen so, yet they insisted on handcuffing me”, he said. Mr. Seetaram said he was being “systematically targeted” by the Bharatiya Janata Party Government. “Otherwise, what is the need to send so many policemen to arrest me? My newspapers have taken a pro-people stand in the anti-SEZ agitation in Mangalore. This is a systematic campaign to muzzle my newspaper group. It is an attack on the freedom of the press”, he said.

Mr. Seetaram said his newspaper office was attacked in Mangalore on November 17, 2008 and no proper investigation had been conducted into the incident. After that it was the distribution network of his newspapers. News agents, hawkers and delivery vans of his group were attacked.

“We had filed over a dozen complaints, but no concrete action has been taken. Some jail-birds were arrested just to show that action has been taken. We have not attacked Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa or Home Minister Dr. V.S. Acharya personally in our columns”, he said.

Mr. Seetaram said that if he was released from this case, the police would arrest him in some other case. He feared attacks by Bajrang Dal activists in jail.

Mr. Shashikant Shetty said that presently, Mr. Seetaram had been advised rest and treatment in the hospital for three days by District Surgeon Dayananda Nayak.

The former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) national president H.D. Deve Gowda on Monday condemned the arrest of Mr. Seetaram. “It is nothing but harassment,” he added.