COP IN CM’S SECURITY SLAPS SCRIBE, CHAVAN APOLOGISES

MUMBAI: A journalist with a television channel was allegedly slapped by one of the constables belonging to the chief minister’s security posse on Wednesday. After a non-cognisable complaint was registered by the Marine Drive police, chief minister Prithviraj Chavan called the journalist Ramaraje Shinde and another journalist, Sagar Kulkarni, who was also pushed by the constable at the same venue, to his residence, Varsha, to hear them out. He also assured them that he would order an inquiry. “It is a very serious incident and I apologise to the journalists,” he said.

The police said the incident took place during a function near the Mantralaya where the chief minister and other dignitaries had come to pay homage before a statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.

After paying homage, around 1pm, the chief minister began to leave with his security when two TV channel reporters tried to approach him for soundbytes. “When I tried to approach the chief minister, one of the constables told me to get back. I told him I was a journalist and wanted to get a quote from the chief minister, but the constable pushed me away. After the chief minister left, the constable came and slapped me,” Shinde said.

Following the incident, all media representatives who had come to cover the function approached the Marine Drive police station and got a non-cognisable complaint filed against the unidentified constable. “We have registered an NC and have asked the security in charge to find out who the constable is,” said an inspector from the Marine Drive police station.

The Patrakar Halla Virodhi Kruti Samiti (Committee against Attacks on Journalists) condemned the incident and called for an agitation on November 16, National Journalists Day, for a special law to protect scribes.