Karnataka: Police has implicated the journalist who broke the Mangalore home stay attack story

From: Tehelka, 17 October 2012

KARNATAKA

Shooting the Messenger

Mangalore police has implicated the journalist who broke the Mangalore home stay attack story for orchestrating the attack. Video evidence with the journalist point fingers at the police, reports Imran Khan

In an absurd turn of events, the truth-teller is being punished for telling the truth. Naveen Sorinjee, the Kasturi TV reporter who broke the story of how Hindu Jagran Vedike (HJV) activists had beaten up and molested young boys and girls in a guest house in Mangalore, Karnataka, has shockingly been named in the chargesheet as orchestrator of the incident.

On 28 July, around 50 HJV activists barged into the Morning Mist Home Stay located on the outskirts of Mangalore and manhandled a few boys and girls celebrating a friend’s birthday. The goons not only beat up the boys but also stripped and molested girls for not adhering to ‘Indian culture’. Caught on camera by a few reporters, this expose made national headlines, forcing the state BJP government to invoke the Goonda Act against the perpetrators.

Stung by the expose, a vengeful district administration and police have now hit back by including Naveen in the chargesheet, alleging that he orchestrated the attack collaborating with the HJV activists. The magistrate court hearing the home stay attack case, has given a warrant for his arrest on 26 October. The Goonda Act has also not been invoked in the recent chargesheet, bringing back memories of the infamous Mangalore pub attack case of 2008, when Sri Ram Sene activists went on a rampage and were caught on camera. The state government had promised to come down heavily on the attackers, but three years later, the trial is yet to start. Interestingly, one of the accused in the July 2012 attack — Subhash Padil — was also part of the 2008 incident.

Naveen alleges that the local administration and the cops have been doing their best to protect the perpetrators ever since the expose. According to the chargesheet, on 28 July, the police received the information of the attack around 9 pm. However, the camera recordings show that Ravish Nayak and Manikantha Neelswany of the Mangalore Rural Police were with the attackers when the attack was taking place. Images captured on camera even show Investigating Officer TR Jagannath arriving at the spot at 7:28 pm and taking a local corporator into custody. “This means the police had information beforehand, and not as claimed in the chargesheet,” says Naveen. “There is even video evidence of the assaulters being escorted to a safe place by the police.”

Even though there were three media houses present in the incident, including channel TV 9, Sahaya TV and the newspaper Jaya Kirana, the police have registered cases only against Naveen (Accused No. 44) and Sharan of Sahaya TV. Ironically, Naveen did not even film the incident (as the cameraman had reported sick for that day) and had obtained the video from the other reporters, although his channel was the first to relay the incident under the headline “Taliban Culture”. So far, the police have arrested 27 persons in the case out of the 50 accused.

Naveen says that he has been targeted because of his consistent reportage on communal forces and human rights violations in the district. “In the past two-and-a-half years, some of my reports have caused legal action against the police and exposed communal forces,” he says.

Corroborating Naveen’s statement, TV 9 Reporter Rajesh Rao says, “Former Mangalore Police Commissioner Seemanth Kumar had called him (Naveen) in the middle of the night and said that he would see to it that he would be booked under stringent laws.” Rajesh doesn’t know why his name didn’t crop up in the chargesheet.

Currently on a study tour abroad, Seemanth Kumar has been replaced by Manish Gardikar as the new Commissioner of the Mangalore Police. On being contacted, Gardikar said, since he has newly moved in, he would like to check the details of the case first before commenting on it.

Civil society groups are incensed that Naveen is being punished for doing his job; also, that by naming him in the chargesheet, a prime witness to this case is being eliminated. “They have added an additional charge of indecent display of women on him, whereas, he was exposing the indecency of the HJV and the BJP government,” says Vidya Dinker, Coordinator of Citizens Forum for Mangalore Development. ”By targeting him, they are shooting the messenger.” Naveen’s bail application is now posed for 22 October.

Imran Khan is a Senior Correspondent with Tehelka.
imran@tehelka.com