HYDERABAD: The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has served notices on the Director-General of Police and the city Police Commissioner asking them to explain by Monday whether they have followed the due process of law while arresting the Revolutionary Writers Association (Virasam) members-- Varavara Rao and G. Kalyan Rao .

Taking suo motu cognizance of media reports that the `due procedure of law' was not followed in effecting the arrests, the SHRC asked the two officers whether the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in the D. K. Basu versus West Bengal Government (1997) case were followed. The SHRC Chairman, Justice B. Subhashan Reddy, told The Hindu that the commission wanted to verify whether the procedures were indeed violated.

According to the Apex Court's guidelines, which were enclosed along with the commission's notice, the arresting police officers have to identify themselves by displaying chest badges, prepare a memo stating reasons for the arrest and inform the relatives. Human rights activists have alleged that these procedures were not followed.

Black badge protest

In a separate development, the Additional Judicial First Class Magistrate of Anantapur, A. Jayaraj, ordered production of Varavara Rao and Kalyan Rao in response to a petition filed by the Anantapur Rural Circle Police for the attack on a police constable at a Martyrs' Memorial meeting Madigubba last year. Meanwhile, journalists unions lodged a strong protest against what they called the outbursts of the DG of Police, Swaranjit Sen, and the statement of the Chief Minister, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, that curbs would be imposed on journalists in reporting news of the banned CPI (Maoist). They wore black badges in the Secretariat.

What added to their anger was the summoning of Ahmetullah, correspondent of a Telugu daily at Nagakurnool in Mahabubnagar district, by Deputy Superintendent of Police, Souraiah, for questioning in connection with a press note issued in the name of the CPI (Maoist) district secretary, Sambasivudu. He was released after four hours after recording his statement, the Mahabubnagar SP, Vikram Singh Mann, said.

No harassment:DGP

The correspondent reportedly collected the press note which was dropped in a box kept at the local bus station. Police reportedly got a tip off that a press note was faxed to Hyderabad and zeroed in on the STD booth from where it was sent. The booth operator, Vittal Singh reportedly said the note had been faxed to a Telugu news channel by the correspondent. In the wake of these protests, the Chief Minister asked the police to exercise restraint. Following this development, the DG of Police said there was no intention of harassing either the mediapersons or the common man.

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