Karnataka Police have registered two cases against K K Shahina, reporter of the Tehelka magazine, and four others for 'threatening the witnesses' in the case related to Bangalore blasts in which PDP chairman Abdul Nazar Madhani is an accused.
Superintendent of Police of Kodagu district A Manjunath told Express over phone that cases have been registered at Somwarpet and Sidhapur police stations under 506 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). Two separate cases were registered because the incidents occurred at two different places, police said.
When contacted by 'Express', Shahina said she has not received any official communication in this regard.
Shahina had gone to Kodagu to interview the witnesses who allegedly told the police that they have seen Madhani at the Lakkeri estate where Tadiyantavide Nazeer had organised a terror camp. Karnataka police had stated that Madhani participated in the Bangalore blast conspiracy hatched at the estate and at his residence in Kochi. They attached statements of three witnesses to buttress their argument.
In her story that appeared in the the latest issue of Tehelka magazine, Shahina said K K Yoganand, one of the witnesses in the case, never knew that he was a witness in the case against Madhani. None of the villagers residing near the estate corroborated the police version, she claimed.
K B Rafeeq, another witness in the case, reportedly told Shahina that Karnataka police forced him to give statement against Madhani.
An employee at the Lakkeri estate, Rafeeq said the Karnataka police threatened him that he also will be put behind the bars if he refused to give statement against Madhani.
"We were blocked by the police when we were on the way to see Rafeeq. They wanted me to go to the police station, which I refused. I told them that I am a mediaperson," Shahina told 'Express'.
Later, an officer called her up to know whether she is a terrorist, she said.
Shahina had earlier did a story on another witness in the case in Kochi, who has moved the court against Karnataka police for fabricating a statement in his name against Madhani.