Other States - Gujarat   

Anti-terrorist squad summons TV scribe

Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD: "Terrorism" seems to have developed a different connotation in Chief Minister Narendra Modi's Gujarat. Even a simple query by mediapersons to a ruling party MLA can be termed "terrorism," if he is a Modi "loyalist."

At the instance of the Chief Minister's office, the anti-terrorist squad of the Gujarat police was asked to "investigate" the correspondent of a television channel because he was "repeatedly" trying to contact the BJP MLA. The journalist said he was investigating an alleged land scam in which the MLA's name figured and was trying to contact him for his side of the story. But the MLA refused to come on line and instead reported the matter to Mr. Modi.

The MLA admitted that he had not lodged any formal complaint with the police but apparently at Mr. Modi's behest, the CMO alerted the ATS to "investigate" the matter. The ATS took printouts of the journalist's mobile phone and found that he had called the MLA seven times. Both the MLA and journalist were summoned by the ATS and their statements recorded.

However, the matter was dropped as the ATS did not find anything offensive in the journalist's action.

"If we get orders, we have to obey," ATS chief D.G. Vanjhara said about the action. "The matter is as good as closed. The CMO does not mean the Chief Minister himself."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Anti-terrorist squad summons TV scribe

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu