UPDATE

'A planned attack'

THE fact-finding committee of eight journalists set up by the Madras Union of Journalists, the Madras Reporters' Guild and the Chennai Press Club to investigate the violence against mediapersons covering a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) rally at the Marina on August 12 has concluded that it was not just a stray instance of individual policemen going berserk but a well-planned assault that had the sanction of senior (police) officers. The committee's report alleges that the "unprovoked attacks", particularly on journalists with still and video cameras, were to destroy all evidence on the complicity of the police in the attack on the rallyists "by certain goondas".

The report describes the violence as the worst-ever attack on journalists in the history of Tamil Nadu. Thirteen journalists including women received injuries in the attack, which was particularly directed at representatives of the visual media. Their expensive camera equipment was damaged by policemen while senior police officers watched, says the report. All this happened right in front of the headquarters of the State Police. About 20 mediapersons, some of them with bleeding injuries, were forcibly kept inside the office of the Director-General of Police for about two hours while the violence continued outside. The motive, it appeared, was to prevent journalists from recording the violence that was taking place outside.

The committee prepared the report after recording the statements of the injured journalists and others. Manish Dhanani, cameraman of Zee TV, who was badly injured, says in his statement: "Some top-ranking police officers ordered the police to charge at the mediapersons and get their video cassettes and film rolls. A group of 20 policemen surrounded me and demanded my cassettes. They began hitting me with lathis when I refused to give them the cassettes. They also broke my camera."

B. Jayashree of Aaj Tak, in her statement to the committee, recalls how she was beaten up by policemen with lathis after a policeman shouted that she was filming the events. "Before I realised what he (a policeman) was doing, he snatched the camera out of my hand, threw it on the ground and broke it into pieces. He made sure that my camera was totally destroyed."

According to the report, the answer to why the policemen targeted video cameramen and still photographers lay in some video clippings that survived the police action. These clippings showed goondas attacking the processionists with swords and casuarina sticks. The report says, "One particular sequence summed it all up. While the police watched from close by, a goonda with a drawn sword chases a howling DMK member inflicting deep cuts on his back." (The report carries pictures of this and other attacks by the men, who reportedly came from nearby Ayodhyakuppam, a fishermen's colony.) It adds: "It is evidence of this kind that the police were seeking to destroy. In that process, the mediapersons were brutally assaulted by the enforcers of law. Obviously, the goondas enjoyed government patronage."

The report states that the police became hostile, particularly to the visual media, after the graphic visuals of DMK president and former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi's arrest were broadcast on Sun TV.

The rallyists also attacked journalists on a couple of occasions. They attacked television crew members of the Asian News International (ANI) first at Saidapet, at the start of the procession and later at Nandanam.

The report recalls the series of attacks on journalists after the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) headed by Jayalalithaa returned to power in May and says this "confrontation hit an ugly climax on August 12".

The committee recommends that the Central Bureau of Investigation probe the August 12 attack and that steps be taken to grant compensation to those who suffered injuries and/or had their camera equipment damaged and to get the government to remove from the terms of reference of the inquiry commission headed by Justice K. Baktavatchalam the portion which says that it "should formulate norms and guidelines" for mediapersons including "the safe distance to be maintained by them".

T.S. Subramanian

Life term in Bowbazar blast case

AT the end of a trial that lasted more than eight years, a Special Court set up under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act sentenced satta (numbers gambling) don Rashid Khan and his five associates to rigorous life imprisonment for their involvement in the blast at Kolkata's Bowbazar, which killed 69 person and wounded 40 on March 16, 1993 (Frontline, April 9, 1993). Justice Pranab Kumar Deb passed several sentences against the accused and all of them will run concurrently. On hearing the judgment, which was delivered on September 1, Rashid broke down in the packed courtroom. The other accused pleaded not guilty and alleged that the police had fabricated the charges.

The Judge said Rashid and his henchmen - Abdul Aziz, Pannalal Jaiswal, Md. Mustafa, Md. Halim and Md. Gulzar - were guilty of causing the blast and conspiring against the nation and the interests of communal harmony. He acquitted them of the charges of committing murder and causing damage to property for lack of direct evidence. The State government plans to challenge the acquittal in the Supreme Court.

Counsel for the defence argued that the accused persons had already spent eight and a half years in jail and there was no need for further punishment. "We will appeal to the Supreme Court requesting the release of Rashid and his associates," they said.

Investigations revealed that a huge quantity of explosives, including RDX (Research Department Explosives), that had been stored by Rashid and his associates went off on the night of March 16 - four days after the serial blasts in Mumbai in 1993 - at 267 Bepin Bihari Ganguly Street, Rashid's satta den, close to the city police headquarters at Lal Bazaar. The three-storeyed building was razed and three adjacent buildings suffered heavy damage. Sixty-five people died on the spot and four died in hospital. Rashid, who was known as the sultan of satta, and his five associates were arrested a day after the blast. Two other accused, Parvez Khan and Imtiaz Khan, are absconding.

According to the investigative team, Rashid had brought in and stored huge quantities of explosives in anticipation of communal riots in the wake of the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. Investigations established Rashid's link with the mafia don Dawood Ibrahim.

Kalyan Chaudhuri