Karnataka police slaps intimidation charge on Kerala journalist November 28, 2010 By admin <http://www.countermedia.in/?author=1>
The Karnataka police has slapped two cases under IPC 506 against *Tehelka*magazine’s Kerala correspondent K. K. Shahina and four others for allegedly intimidating witnesses in the Bengaluru blast case. Abdul Nasar Mahdani, Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party of Kerala, is an accused in the blast case. Mahdani was acquitted in the Coimbatore blast case in 2007 after he had spent nearly 10 years in jail without bail or parole. On his return to Kerala he was under police protection in view of possible threat to his life. According to the Karmataka police he had travelled secretly from Kerala to the Lakkeri estate in Kodagu and participated in the conspiracy to set off explosions in Bengaluru. The Karnataka police arrested Mahdani from Karunagapally, near Kollam, on August 17. In a report, published in *Tehelka* a week later, Shahina had cast doubts on the police case. She quoted Jose Varghese, a prime witness whose purported testimony was the basis of the police action, as saying, “This is unbelievable. I never imagined that the police could fabricate a case like this.” This month she visited Karnataka to ascertain the veracity of of the testimony of some other witnesses cited by the police. In a report headlined, “Why is this man still in prison?<http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne041210Why_is_this.asp>”, appearing in the latest issue of *Tehelka* (dated December 4, 2010) she states that K.K.Yoganand and a few Bharatiya Janata Party workers, including the vice-president of the panchayat, whom she met at Igoor in Hassan district, disclosed that, contrary to what the police says in the charge-sheet, they had not seen Mahdanni in that area. In a side story, she adds, “While on our way from Hosathotta to a secret location where we had planned to meet Rafeeq, another witness, we were stopped by the police. The Circle Inspector of Hosathotta police station, despite being told that we were from the media, warned us that we are not allowed ‘to do such things here’. “A police vehicle tailed us for a while en route to Madikeri to ensure that we had left. After an hour, we changed vehicles and kept our appointment with Rafeeq. “On our way back, at 9.30 pm, I received a call from the Circle Inspector. The question was simple: ‘Are you a terrorist?’ I did not know whether to laugh or cry. He then explained that the villagers were scared and suspected that we were terrorists. He wanted to confirm my identity by talking to my editor. “The next day, three Kannada newspapers, *Sakthi, Prajavani and Kannada Prabha, *carried a story about a “suspicious” visit by a “group of Muslims” to the place. The newspapers said police were not sure about the identity of the woman, though she had showed a TEHELKA identity card!” In conclusion, she writes, “Now I know how a terrorist is ‘made’. If this is how police build a case against a ‘terrorist’, easily raising a false alarm, then one has to worry about how the dominant discourse of terrorism works against a country and its people.” The Malayalam daily, Mathrubhumi<http://www.mathrubhumi.com/story.php?id=142958>, in a report from Bengaluru said police had registered a case against Shahina and four others for allegedly intimidating blast case witnesses. The paper quoted Manjunath, Superintendent of Police, Kodagu, as saying efforts were on to trace the four men who were with Shahina. The officer declined to state whether the cases were registered on the basis of complaints received from the witnesses. Rights activists have opened a “Protest repression, Support K K Shanina<http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_169124966444299&id=169137889776340>” page on FaceBook. The message on the page says, “Shahina K K, a journalist with *Tehelka* who recently wrote an article which challenged the police story on Abdul Nazar Madani has been booked under IPC 506 for ‘intimidating the witnesses in the Madani case’!!! This is yet another shocking case in which the State is so easily suppressing voices that raise any kind of resistance. We need to protest against this strongly and think of making our collective voices heard! Please join and Support!” from www.countermedia.in -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send an email to greenyo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB.
