Arrest of journalists condemned

The Central Crime Station (CCS) Police on Saturday arrested output editor Ravi and reporter Akhtar of Zee 24 Hours Telugu news channel for allegedly airing morphed videos of Director General Police V Dinesh Reddy’s meeting with a godman at Old City on Thursday. The police however came in for string condemnation in the media circles.

Following the arrest, members of both Crime Reporters’ Forum and Telangana Journalists’ Forum sent a representation to the Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anurag Sarma seeking justice on the issue. He assured the members that he would look into the issue and appropriate action would be taken in connection with the arrest. Earlier, employees of the Telugu news channel protested in front of CCS’s DCP office and the commissioner’s office condemning the detention. The employees staged a black badge demonstration.

They faulted the way police made the arrest. “The police had taken both the employees into custody without serving prior notice. In the name of interrogation, police are harassing journalists. Often, reporters are being targetted by the police,” they alleged.

They demanded release of the arrested scribes immediately. At the time of meeting the commissioner, members of the delegation sat on the floor in protest of the custody. In addition to the duo, the police are said to have summoned few more employees of the channel for interrogations. Secretary for Union Home Ministry, Anil Goswami is learned to have sought explanations of state government chief secretary P K Mohanty and DGP Dinesh Reddy over the issue after members of Delhi Telugu Journalists’ Association complained to him about the alleged highhandedness of police officials in dealing with the issue.

Following the telecast of special story by the channel over the DGP’s visit to Habib Mustafa Idrus at Fateh Darwaza, Subba Rao of DGP office lodged a complaint with CCS police against the channel. A case under Section 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation) of the Indian Penal Code, section 66A (sending offensive messages through communication etc) of the IT Act was registered against the news channel.

CCS DCP LKV Ranga Rao said, “The footage aired by the news channel showed the DGP prostrating before the baba. However, that did not happen and the video was morphed.” He stated that the entire video footage shown by the channel in the story would be sent to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) to ascertain if any part of it has been morphed as alleged.

Meanwhile, supporters of Habib Mustafa Idrus Baba on Thursday protested against Zee 24 Gantalu alleging the channel had depicted the godman as a person having a criminal record.

DGP Dinesh Reddy spent around 40 minutes at the Baba’s place. He reached Fateh Darwaza in his convoy. He was accompanied by Additional DCP (Task Force) B Limba Reddy during the visit. His visit evoked significance after the Supreme Court recently directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to probe his assets on a petition filed by another IPS officer Umesh Kumar.