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Monday, Jun 02, 2008
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Case filed against newspaper

For running a campaign against police commissioner

AHMEDABAD: The newly-appointed Ahmedabad city police commissioner, O.P. Mathur, has filed a case of “sedition and treason” against the Ahmedabad edition of The Times of India, its local resident editor, Bharat Desai, and its crime reporter, Prashant Dayal.

FIR lodged

The FIR was lodged with the Navrangpura police station, against the newspaper for running a campaign on the front page of the edition during the last five days against Mr. Mathur.

Signed articles

In articles written by Mr. Dayal, Mr. Mathur, who took over the charge as the Ahmedabad police commissioner on May 21, was described as an agent of the former underworld don, Abdul Latif, who was killed in an encounter in 1998, and through him, being connected with Dawood Ibrahim and the Inter Services Intelligence.

The reports quoted a statement given before the CBI by a former Latif henchman, Abdul Khurdush, in connection with the murder of the former Congress MP, Raoof Valiullah, in which he claimed that Mr. Mathur, who was then appointed the chief of a special squad to nab Latif, was on Latif’s “payroll.”

Charges

The legal experts, however, could not explain how the charges of “sedition and treason” could be applicable in this case.

No official clearance

It was also learnt that Mr. Mathur did not obtain the State government’s clearance before the filing the case.

The FIR also erroneously booked complaints against Gautam Mehta as the “Times of India photographer” while he is the lensman of Gujarati daily Gujarat Samachar.

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