The Hindu : New Delhi News : Scribes roughed up at AICC session venue

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Sunday, Nov 18, 2007
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Scribes roughed up at AICC session venue

Incident after verbal duel with police

Journalists sit on dharna outside venue
Sonia Gandhi tenders apology
for incident

New Delhi: Some mediapersons were on Saturday roughed up by police at the venue of the day-long AICC session here, prompting Congress president Sonia Gandhi to tender an apology.

Entry banned

The unsavoury incident occurred when scribes were stopped from entering the Talkatora Stadium by the police in the morning hours, leading to heated exchange of words between them. Police denied entry claiming that the stadium was overcrowded.

After waiting for several hours, some scribes moved to another gate on the direction of a senior Congress leader. However, they were stopped by the police there too.

Furious journalists entered into a verbal duel with police and the altercation soon led to a scuffle and one woman journalist was roughed up.

Angry scribes then sat on a dharna outside the venue demanding an apology from the police.

As the situation turned ugly, senior party leader and Union Minister Ambika Soni and Information and Broadcasting Minister P.R. Dasmunsi reached the spot and apologised for the police highhandedness.

“Woman officer assaulted us”

“We were beaten up although we tried to explain that we were here to cover the event. A senior woman police officer shouted expletives at us and assaulted us,” Neelam Jena, a senior journalist with ‘Vishal Andhra’ daily said.

Ms. Gandhi, in her valedictory address, also referred to the incident and said she was sorry for it but was happy that the issue was resolved amicably.

She also contacted the scribes to express regret over the incident. — PTI

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