Orissa attacks listed, January-July 2010

Attacks

 

February 9: Dinesh Das and Ashok Pradhan, journalists with Pioneer and a local Orissa newspaper Athgarh Prahari respectively, were investigating reports that the local sarpanch, Premananda Gochchayat of Dhaipur gram panchayat, was executing the Baikani Water Reservoir Project works, an NREGA project, using JCB machines and tractors instead of engaging job-card holders. When they began clicking photographs and taking videos of the work, the sarpanch snatched their cameras and assaulted them.

 

The journalists lodged an FIR in the local police station and the sarpanch filed a counter complaint under the Prevention of Atrocities Act as he belongs to a scheduled caste. Fearing arrest the journalists have not even gone to the police station to enquire about their own complaint. Das said, "We were repeatedly abused and told we would be taught a lesson. The police have assured me they won’t arrest me but how can I trust them? They haven’t dropped the charges against us. I haven’t gone to the area all these months." No action has been taken so far.

 

February 20: Orissa TV journalist, Abhay Pati, was manhandled by the Manager of Cuttack Urban Co-operative Bank, Jajpur, Gour Prasad Das, when he was covering a vigilance raid on the banker’s house. A complaint with the police has not led to any action so far.

 

March 16: Journalists covering a clash between members of the ruling Biju Janta Dal (BJD) and the opposition Congress party were attacked by BJD supporters in Bhaapur Block of Nayagarh district. Despite the presence of police and their appeals to the police to rescue them from the brick-batting, the latter allegedly failed to do so. The journalists alleged that police personnel also helped the political party hoodlums in attacking them.

A complaint was lodged with the police and the local administration and a memorandum submitted to the district collector demanding exemplary action within a week against the police personnel responsible for the attack. No action has been taken.

April 5: Three journalists were attacked by supporters of the State Finance minister Prafulla Chandra Ghadei when they went to report a police lathi-charge and firing on villagers of Baligotha, Gobaghat and other villages on March 30. The villagers were opposing the construction of a common corridor in the area. Several villagers who were badly injured and had sustained bullet injuries were too frightened to seek medical help and this was what the journalists went to cover when they were attacked.

 

Amulya Kumar Pati of the New Indian Express, and Manas Jena and Sujit Mullick who worked for Oriya newspapers, were assaulted in the presence of the police. The were covering a morcha organised by the Orissa state president of the BJP, Jual Oram. The latter and a few of his supporter were also attacked.

 

"I was mercilessly beaten up," Pati said, adding that the police and local security guards of the Tata Steel Co had marked him because of his earlier reports about the area. Kalinganagar has been the site of a major dispute with the Tata company as villagers organised under the banner of the Bisthapan Birodhi Jan Manch (BBJM) had opposed any surrender of land for the mega project.

 

In 2006, 13 tribals died in police firing when they protested against the takeover of their land. In February this year, a new collector, Pramod Mohanty, tried to begin construction work on a 7.5 kilometre `common corridor’ road to the Tata project, using 300 acres of land and running through four villages that are the main areas of resistance today. "The villagers protested this but on March 28, 800 armed police began entering villages and beating up the villagers. An old man was fatally wounded and died later in hospital. Several villagers hid in fear and were unable to seek medical aid," he says, adding that when journalists reached the spot, police did not allow them to enter a cordoned off area.

Pati, along with Prafulla Das of The Hindu and freelance journalist Nachiketa Desai, managed to sneak into a village, took pictures and returned to report the plight of the villagers. "I wrote a piece for my newspaper, The New Indian Express, headlined ‘Kalinganagar off-limits even for scribes’ and I think the fact that I managed to enter an area under siege and take pictures angered the police. So when BJP leader of the opposition Jual Oram announced his decision to visit the site on April 5, police had clamped down Sec 144 in the area and began pushing back the BJP leader and his supporters," Pati said.

Jena said, "I began clicking pictures but the security people snatched my camera and roughed me up. Mullick’s camera was also snatched and he was pushed aside." Pati then took out his camera to take pictures but was spotted. "They recognised me and started beating me up mercilessly. They smashed my camera, my mobile phone and even took away my pen drive,’’ he said. Chased by the security and police, he ran over a burning tyre and sustained burn injuries on his feet.

Pati filed an FIR naming Ghadei’s son, Pritiranjan Ghadei and Babuli Haiburn, in charge of the Tata transit camp along with three others. Two persons were arrested in connection with the incident but others mentioned in the FIR, including Pritiranjan Ghadei and Babuli Haiburn, continue to roam free. Jajpur SP, D S Kuttiye refused to answer questions on the incident.

April 22: Ten journalists representing different newspapers and television channels in Orissa were severely beaten up by the management and hired security guards of Silicon Institute of Technology, a private educational institute, when they went to cover a student protest on campus. The students were protesting the death of a student, allegedly due to food poisoning, in the college canteen. When journalists heard of the incident, they rushed to the campus but were denied entry. The journalists tried meeting the students but were told that the students were confined to a room and were not being allowed out.

 

In the tension that followed, the journalists managed to enter the campus, only to be beaten up. Several journalists sustained injuries and their cameras were damaged in the process.

 

Subsequently, an advertisement war of sorts over the issue broke out in Orissa newspapers. First, an advertisement issued by the Orissa Private Engineering Colleges Association (OPECA) appeared in several newspapers stating that the "allegation against the Directors and employees of Silicon Institute of Technology for allegedly manhandling the media is absolutely false and fabricated". Later, in another advertisement, the association admitted the incident and offered an unconditional apology. But some members of the association disassociated themselves from this advertisement the next day and allegedly tried to prevail upon the city Police Commissioner to drop charges under 307 IPC (attempt to murder) levelled against the assailants.

 

A complaint was lodged with the city police against ten persons for the assault.

The accused were arrested but granted bail since no case diary was made of the complaint. 

 

May 6: Biranjan Mallick, a journalist working for Khabar, an Oriya newspaper in Balanga, Puri district, was attacked by the Sarpanch of Suninda village and his supporters a day after a report was published in his newspaper regarding irregularities in National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) scheme. The attackers are allegedly affiliated to the ruling Biju Janata Dal.

 

Sarpanch, Asok Kumar Dash, and his supporters were angry when they saw a vigilance team making enquiries about the NREGA scam in the village. The journalist was tied to a tree and thrashed. His mobile phone and valuables were snatched and he could only be rescued by other journalists who reached the spot.

 

Balanga police registered a case under The Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 and three persons were arrested but the prime accused, the sarpanch, is still at large.

 

May 8: Several jawans of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), a paramilitary force, attacked journalists and a television camera crew to prevent them from filming their assault of a truck driver who ran over the daughter of a CISF jawan. ETV reporter Jagadananda Pradhan, sustained severe injuries and his camera was also destroyed in the process.

 

A complaint was lodged with the CISF but no action has been taken so far.

 

May 31: Journalists who went to cover a clash between relatives of a patient who died in MKCG Medical College due to the alleged negligence of medical students attending to him, were attacked by the students. The police were present at the spot.

 

Journalists said that they received news that a patient who was being operated upon by medical students instead of a doctor or specialist died on the operating table due to an overdose of anaesthesia. Relatives of the patient began attacking the hospital and the journalists began covering the clash when they were beaten up. Their cameras were damaged, their cash and valuables snatched and they were driven out of the campus.

 

A complaint was filed in the Baidyanathpur police station however no cognisance was taken of it. The journalists have demanded the transfer of the Behrampur Superintendent of Police, Safeen Ahmed.

 

 

June 9: Akhand, a journalist working for Kanak TV in Pipili, Puri district, had written about the illegal tree-felling by a local politician and ward member of the ruling BJD, Pravakar Behera. When Akhand was returning home Behera stopped his motorcycle and began abusing him. He then forcibly pushed Akhand down and began beating him and assaulting him with a sharp weapon. He also snatched his gold chain and warned him against reporting the matter to the police.

 

A complaint was filed in Pipili police station. Another was filed on June 11 before R N Bahida, Chairperson of the Orissa State Human Rights Commission. No action was taken by the local police station. On July 6, the Orissa State Human Rights Commission ordered the Superintendent of Police, Puri, to submit a report on the inaction of local police within six weeks.

 

 

July 1: Suryamani Mishra, a journalist working with Oriya daily Khabar, in Bhubaneswar, was walking home at night after his duty when two people attacked and abused him. He is well known for writing against communal issues, land scams and builder mafias.

 

When the journalist lodged a complaint with Bhubaneswar police he was told that it was a random attack by drunkards and no action could be taken against them

 

July 13: An ETV woman journalist was molested and a cameraman assaulted by Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) personnel while covering the ISKCON rath yatra in Bhubaneswar. The woman reporter (name withheld) and Debasis Mallick, camera-person of ETV were assigned to cover the rath yatra.

 

While the lady reporter went near the chariot/rath, an IRB member, identified as Nrusingha Chandra Sahu, molested her and when she protested, another IRB jawan joined him. He also tried to molest her, despite the presence of several police personnel and public. Soon the camera person, Debasis, went to her rescue and protested their behaviour. When the IRB men realised that he was filming them they started attacking Debasis brutally and broke his video camera into pieces. Journalists state that two Bhubaneswar police officers, who witnessed the assault, chose not to interfere and simply walked away from the scene.

 

The woman reporter and the camera-person filed an F.I.R. with Nayapalli Police Station and identified the culprits in the presence of Bhubaneswar DCP Himanshu Lal and other officers. Both the accused were arrested and sent to judicial custody. However, they filed an FIR against the journalists and this was taken on record as the first FIR, though it was filed more than one hour after the FIR filed by the journalists.

 

July 23: Ramnarayan Das, a reporter of ‘The Samaja, was assaulted by the former sarpanch of Nirakapur in Khurda distritc when he went to report on the self-immolation bid of a social worker. The attack took place in the presence of the area tahsildar and the police.

 

The social worker had announced his intention to immolate himself in front of the office of the local Revenue Inspector to protest the official inaction against destruction of the eco-system by local mining mafias and the tahsildar and police officials had gone to the spot to dissuade him.

 

The journalist was interviewing the tahslidar when members of mining mafia threatened him and warned him against reporting the issue. When the journalist protested this attempt at intimidation, the former Sarpanch Subas Dalasinghroy attacked him and he was rendered unconscious. Police and the tahsildar present at the spot were unable to stop them.

 

A case (No.62/10) u/s 294, 323, 324 and 506 IPC has been lodged but no arrests have been made. 

 

Threats and intimidation

 

January 3: Banka Bihari Bishoi, a, reporter of ‘The Samaja’, an Oriya daily, was abused and threatened by the Nabrangpur District Collector, Rupa Mishra. The latter apparently took umbrage because the newspaper the journalist represented had been ignoring her! The journalist had gone to report on some issue and was talking to the District Welfare Officer, Mukund Nihal, when the incident occurred.

 

According to the journalist, Mishra wanted to know why he had come to the office of the Collector and told him to leave immediately. The shocked journalist could barely react when she continued: ‘mora naama o photo Samajare kahinkin prakash paunahin?’ (Why are my name and pictures not appearing in Samaja?). The Superintendent of Police, Nabrangpur, was present when the incident occurred.

 

No action has been taken despite a complaint being lodged with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

 

February 13: Bolan Gangopadhyay, a senior woman journalist from West Bengal was detained at Muniguda police station while on her way to the Niyamgiri area. The journalist claimed to be representing the Ananda Bazar Patrika, Kolkata but did not have proof for this. When the newspaper also informed the police that she did not work with them, the police detained her. Gangopadhyay, it was learnt, was not a staffer but freelanced for the newspaper and several journalists, representatives of media organisations and civil liberties groups had to intervene on her behalf to obtain her release without charge.

 

March 11: Police in Chhatrapur raided the residence of well-known journalist and writer Dandapani Mohapatra in Chungudikhol, Ganjam district without any search warrant, while he was away from home. During the raid, one police officer said that his house was raided because of his alleged links with Naxal leaders.

 

Mohapatra, general secretary of the Dakhina Odisha Sahitya Sammilani for over 25 years, is well-known for his independent thinking and has regularly written about corruption and nepotism. He later said that five van loads of police belonging to five police stations reached his home and virtually terrorised his family members. They broke open all the boxes and packets containing books, newspapers and personal documents, seized old copies of Ghadaghadi  magazine (now defunct) and some other magazines, which he had collected and preserved in his personal library. Then the police forced his son Gautam Buddha Mohapatra to sign on some blank papers. The local Sarpanch was also asked to sign on some plain papers.

 

No action has been taken despite strong protests from journalists and civil liberties organisations.

 

April 6: The Secretary of the Public Grievances & Pension Administration department, Orissa, has addressed a letter to the State Lokpal to initiate appropriate action as per Section 15 (5) of Orissa Lokpal and Loayukta Act 1995 against journalists and media organizations for violating Section 15(4) of the Act by publishing recommendations of the Lokpal in cases against Vedanta University.

 

On March 17, 2010 Justice P K Patra, who is the state Lok Pal, passed an order on a complaint filed by Advocate Dwaraka Mohan Misra that all norms were violated when the state government handed over land to the Anil Agarwal Foundation for setting up Vedanta University. The Lok Pal’s order, recommending a moratorium on the project was received by the complainant and covered extensively by television and print media.

 

On April 6, 2010, the Lok Pal received a communication from the Secretary of the Public Grievances & Pension Administration department to initiate appropriate action as per Section 15 (5) of Orissa Lokpal and Lokayukta Act 1995 against journalists and media organizations that, according to him, have violated Section 15(4) of the said Act by publishing recommendations of the Lokpal on irregularities in the award of land to Vendanta University. So far, the Lok Pal has not responded to the letter.

May 10: Protesting the presence of police and security personnel outside his residence for several days and their surveillance and monitoring of his activities, senior journalist and correspondent of India TV, Prasanta Patnaik wrote to Bhubaneswar city police commissioner B K Sharma to demand safety and security for himself and his family.

 

Patnaik said that the surveillance had begun soon after he raised a protest about the attack on journalists in Silicon Institute of Technology in Bhubaneswar on April 22 as well as the attack on journalists in Kalinganagar, Jajpur district, on April 5.

 

In his letter, Patnaik said: "I fear the police and corporate, including the education mafias, against whom I have raised voice in different forums have joined hands to victimize me and my family members, by hatching a deep rooted conspiracy against me. Since such people, including the police have got money power, muscle power and political power, I fear, they might hatch some conspiracy to harass/defame/ assault me at earliest opportunity to silence my voice against corruption, mafia raj, nepotism and criminalization in different fronts."

 

The surveillance and police presence outside his residence stopped as soon as the letter was received but he received no formal communication from the Police commissioner.

 

June 9: Associates of an accused in a local criminal matter forced their way into the house of Bhabani Das, a photogapher working for an Orissa daily, The Dharitri, and roughed up his younger brother. They also threatened his family members and issued a warning against Das’s reportage.

 

A complaint was lodged with the Airfield police station but the accused, though identified, are still at large.

 

Sedition

 

At least four cases of sedition were slapped on journalists and writers between 2004-2009 and it was the last two cases, barely a few months apart, against Laxman Chaudhury, a stringer with Orissa daily, Samvad, and Lenin Kumar, editor of a radical literary magazine, Nissan, that galvanised public opinion in Orissa on threats to freedom of speech and expression.

 

The list of cases:

 

 

On February 14, 2004, Keerti Chandra Sahu, working for a Behrampur-based  Orissa daily, Anupam Bharat, was called to the police station ‘for a chat’. He was kept in the police station for several hours. Restless, he told the police he wanted to leave as he had other work. At this point, he was told that he was under arrest for ‘aiding Naxals’. Sahu was charged with sedition.

Sahu said that he used to write consistently about the plight of tribals in Kashipur and the problems created by the Utkal Alumina plant of the Aditya Birla group. But what raised the ire of local police was his report that a top Maoist leader, Sabyasachi Panda, had gone to his village to attend the funeral of his father but his presence went undetected by police and intelligence agencies.

Subsequently, Sahu wrote about two junior engineers who had been extorting money from locals allegedly on behalf of the Maoists. Panda wrote a letter to Sahu denying the involvement of the Maoists in this extortion. Sahu published this letter in his newspaper. Then, he said, an elaborate trap was laid by police to book him for links to Maoists.

Police arrested the junior engineer and the latter allegedly implicated Sahu in extortion. Later, he confessed that he was forced by police to give a false statement implicating Sahu.

Sahu was charged under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 124-A (sedition) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. A charge-sheet has been filed but the trial has not started as yet.  The media pressure on his case helped him secure bail and he is now a reporter of OTV. He continues to cover trouble spots, including Malkangiri and Koraput.

 

In May 2007, Khaturam Sunani, a reporter working for OTV channel, had filed a report that Pahariya tribals were consuming ‘soft’ dolomite stones (known locally as jhikiri) in Nuapada district due to acute hunger and food deprivation. The news caused a major controversy and embarrassment for the state government.

 

Sunani and another journalist, Meghnad Khersel, were charged by Sinapali police station under Sec 124-A (sedition) and 417 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code.

Though Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik assured journalists that the cases would not be pursued, there was no response to the demand of journalists that charges of sedition be dropped.

 

On September 20, 2009, A stringer with Oriya daily, Sambad, Laxman Chaudhury, was arrested by Mohana police in Gajapati district and charged with sedition for possessing Maoist literature. The arrest sparked a protest from journalists in Orissa. Chaudhury was finally released on bail on December 3, 2009 on the orders of the Orissa High Court.

Chaudhury was asked for his identification but being a stringer, he did not possess any identity card or documents issued by the newspaper he contributed for.  Police said they had recovered leaflets issued by Maoists from Chaudhury’s possession, but this was denied by the latter. According to Chaudhury, the trouble really started because he had reported the seizure of a truck carrying ‘ganja’ (drugs) but local police, who were also involved in the illegal trade, had asked him not to disclose this news.

Since he did not comply, the local officer in charge was angry with him and this might be one reason for his arrest. Chaudhury was charged with different sections under the Indian Penal Code, including 120A (criminal conspiracy), and section 124A (sedition).

What vindicated Chaudhury’s stand that he was innocent and had been framed was the arrest of the same police officer on charges of drug-running, by the state vigilance squad, a few months later. However, sedition and other charges against Chaudhury, remain.

Editor of ‘Nissan’, a radical literary magazine in Oriya, Lenin Ray or Lenin Kumar, was picked up by police on December 8, 2008, after a special booklet on the Kandhamal riots entitled ‘Dharmanare Khandamalre Raktonadhi’ (The rivers of blood in Kandhamal) was published in the magazine. Police had been keeping a watch on him and monitoring his stand on different issues, especially after the riots. The Jagatsingpur superintendent of police had also issued a statement that Nissan was a Maoist magazine.

 

Lenin was picked up by two plainclothesmen at around 1.30 a.m. and his house was raided. Police also arrested the manager and two press workers of Shobham Press, a commercial printing press that had published the book. He was not told the reasons for his arrest and a bail plea was rejected. The charges against him included sedition, 153A (a) and (b), 295A and 34 of the IPC.

 

Amidst widespread protests from media and civil liberties organisations, another plea was moved before the Sessions Court and on December 17 and he was granted bail on condition that he and the other accused shall ‘not involve themselves in any further act of the alleged type, appear before the investigating officer as and when required and not leave the state of Orissa without the prior permission of the Court’.

 

Attacks (2009)

Jagannath Bastia, a representative of Oriya daily Samaj, was attacked on November 7, 2009 in Puri by unidentified persons who were allegedly the supporters of local legislator Maheswar Mohanty. Bastia had been writing about the land-grabbing by politicians belonging to the ruling party and officers of the civil body and their violation of High Court rulings and government directives. He was also head of the State Beach Protection Council which had been fighting for the conservation of the beaches of the state. He had earlier exposed the work of Mohanty, who, as chairman of the Puri Municipality, had illegally granted huge land to a hotelier in the prohibited underground sweet water zone that supplies drinking water to the city.

Bastia, who was hit on the head while returning home on his Scooty, fell down and was again attacked. He was rushed to the district headquarter hospital in a critical condition. Basatia’s complaint to the Kumbharpara police has not led to any action.

In September 2009, Sriharsa Mishra and Kiran Mishra, journalist from Oriya daily ‘Aromv’, were abused and assaulted by the security guard and employees of the Jharsaguda collector’s office. The journalists wanted to know why the district collector had not visited the villages where a number of farmers had committed suicide and what the administration had done about the death of farmers in the district.

An FIR has been lodged by Sriharsa at Jharsuguda Police Station but no action has been initiated by the police.