Karnataka - Mangalore   

Decision on Seetharam's bail plea tomorrow

Special Correspondent

MANGALORE: The bail petition filed by B.V. Seetharam, Editor and Director of local eveninger "Karavali Ale", was heard on Tuesday and a decision is likely on Thursday.

Mr. Seetharam's judicial custody has been extended up to March 16.

Health stable

Meanwhile, the authorities of the district Wenlock Hospital have declared that his health was stable and he would be shifted to the district jail. His wife Rohini continues to be in district jail.

Sources close to Mr. Seetharam said that as long as he was in the hospital, the authorities had restricted the number of visitors to one or two persons and he did not have access to a cell phone.

According to Superintendent of Police B. Dayananda, Mr. Seetharam had been charged with promoting enmity between different groups of religion and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.

Expressing it as a "sad development", district in-charge Minister B. Nagaraja Shetty said the sections under Mr. Seetharam had been charged could be only dealt by the judiciary and as a district minister he was helpless. Medical Education Minister V.S. Acharya said "Karavali Ale" had deeply hurt the religious sentiments of all sections and the articles published by the paper had been partly responsible for communal tension in Dakshina Kannada district.

He said there were other things in society to write about other than religion.

CITU State unit president B. Madhawa said that many times the matter that appeared in the "Karavali Ale" was not acceptable but the freedom of a journalist to express his views should be respected.

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