The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Journalists emerge from jail to a warm welcome

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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Journalists emerge from jail to a warm welcome

PHOTO: SATISH. H

FEEL OF FREEDOM: Andhra Jyothi Editor K. Srinivas being released on bail from Chanchalguda jail on Friday.

HYDERABAD: After remaining in custody for three days, Andhra Jyothi Editor K. Srinivas and two other journalists -- Vamsi and Srinivas -- were released from the Chanchalguda central prison on Friday evening.

The three journalists emerged from the jail at 4.15 p.m. to a warm welcome by journalists, their colleagues in the newspaper and family members.

They were mobbed and garlanded by the waiting journalists, who raised slogans against the government and Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Mr. Srinivas’s daughter offered him sweets.

Like their arrest, the release of the three journalists was marked by tension. Though the bail order was issued on Thursday, their release was delayed as formalities pertaining to furnishing of sureties could not be completed till Friday evening.

Mr. Srinivas and the two journalists were arrested on June 24 night and remanded to judicial custody on the basis of a complaint filed by Madiga Reservation Porata Samithi president Manda Krishna under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.

They were taken in a rally from Chanchalguda to Deshodharaka Bhavan in Basheerbagh, where the representatives of the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) and other media persons welcomed them. They included Indian Journalists Union secretary general K. Srinivas Reddy and Chairman of A. P. Press Academy D. Amar.

Mr. Srinivas said later the arrests were carried out with full knowledge of the Chief Minister.

He feared that this was just the beginning of harassment by the government since 16 Andhra Jyothi journalists and staff had been booked in the case.

“The government wants to stretch the case till the next elections and harass the newspaper,” he said.

Recalling their experience in the jail, Mr. Srinivas and the two journalists said even the prisoners and jail staff sympathised with them stating that it was not the place for journalists to be.

At the same time, they narrated the numerous shortcomings in the running of the jail.

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