annual report print final.qxd - Asian Centre for Human Rights

INDIA HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT 2005 Freedom of the press
and illegal house trespass. But all of them
were released on bail immediately
although they were arrested under nonbailable
charges. The culprits were
granted bail because the police failed to
produce important records before the
magistrate including the medical report,
case diary and seizure report. The public
prosecutor who was supposed to oppose
the bail application was also absent which
resulted in the perpetrators bail
applications going unopposed. 12
Lawyers at the metropolitan
magistrates’ court in Ahmedabad, Gujarat
assaulted television crews and other
members of the media on the evening of
29 January 2004. At least four
mediapersons were seriously injured, and
the irate mob of lawyers even burnt a Zee
TV camera within the court premises. The
lawyers were protesting against Zee TV’s
exposure of the metropolitan magistrate of
Court No. 10 of Meghaninagar, Brahm
Bhatt, who had issued the bailable
warrants against President A.P.J. Abdul
Kalam, Chief Justice V. N. Khare,
Supreme Court judge B.P. Singh and
former Supreme Court Bar Association
president R.K. Jain. Around 60 lawyers
attacked Zee News cameramen Subodh
Vyas and correspondent Janak Dave, Aaj
Tak correspondent Rajiv Patel and
cameramen Quasar Khan. All of them
were beaten and their clothes torn. An FIR
has been filed at Meghaninagar police
against the lawyers for attacking the
mediapersons. 13
The Assam Police in Lakhimpur area
278
harassed the journalists in connection with
the news of death of five ULFA cadres in
an encounter with the Army on 29 October
2004 near Laluk in the district. On the
pretext of a discussion, the Lakhimpur
Superintendent of Police had invited the
journalists for a meeting, but later started
using intimidatory tactics to know the
source behind the news items published in
their respective newspapers. 14
The armed opposition groups were
also responsible for silencing the right to
freedom of expression.
The alleged cadres of the Maoist
Communist Centre (MCC) shot dead
Naveen Kumar Verma, a local journalist of
Patna-based Hindi daily Dainik Jagran in
Gaya district of Bihar on 24 April 2004.
Verma was reportedly abducted from his
residence at Nima village under Amas
police station and shot dead from point
blank range in a nearby field. 15
The Maoist Communist Centre
(MCC) reportedly issued summons to nine
Bakaro-based journalists for allegedly
writing anti-MCC articles during the
April-May 2004 Lok Sabha election. In a
press release issued by MCC north zonal
secretary Arun Kumar, the scribes have
been asked to argue their cases before a
Jan Adalat. 16
On 3 May 2004, eight persons
including a photojournalist Habibullah
Naqash were reportedly injured in a
grenade explosion at Press Enclave Pratap
Park in Srinagar of Jammu and Kashmir.
The grenade exploded outside the
residential quarter of journalist turned