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CRPF denies news channel report

New Delhi: Upset over a report in a private television channel, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Wednesday said it was contemplating legal action against the news channel for reporting that three of its personnel on duty at the Prime Minister's residence were terrorists.

"My men cannot be rubbished like this. We have a history of dedication to duty. None of the men named by the television channel have even a remote history of being terrorists," an agitated CRPF Director-General J.K. Sinha told reporters here.

"I am consulting my legal cell and we will not hesitate to seek legal recourse, if needed," he said. He was reacting to an India TV channel's report on Tuesday in which it claimed that the three personnel of the CRPF's 2nd battalion were residents of Kashmir and had belonged to the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen militant outfit and had been placed on security duty for the Prime Minister.

Terming it a "blatant lie", Mr. Sinha said while Gulzar Lone, a resident of Anantnag in South Kashmir, joined the CRPF in 1988 during a recruitment drive in the national capital, Mehruddin was a resident of Punjab and had joined the force in 1995 at the Bangalore recruitment camp. The third, Mansoor Ahmed Lone, a resident of Anantnag, had joined the force in 1998 under the category of former militant and had stated in his application that he belonged to a militant outfit, the Muslim Mujahideen.

This outfit was only on paper and was probably formed only to provide jobs to unemployed youths so that they did not become fodder for militants, security officials also said. - PTI

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