http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/25/stories/2008062550310100.htm
Front Page Andhra Jyothi editor held amid drama Special Correspondent Two reporters also arrested under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act HYDERABAD: The row between the Madiga Reservation Porata Samiti (MRPS) and a vernacular daily Andhra Jyothi took a dramatic turn on Tuesday, when police arrested the newspaper editor K. Srinivas and two reporters under the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The arrest of the journalists was based on a complaint lodged by MRPS leader Manda Krishna Madiga alleging that the action of Andhra Jyothi staffers in slapping an effigy with footwear attracted the provisions of the Act. This alleged incident took place near Jubilee Hills check post during a rally taken out by newspaper employees in protest against the attack on the Andhra Jyothi office by MRPS activists on May 26. They were protesting against a report in the daily describing some unnamed leaders belonging to backward classes as 'saleable commodities'. Tuesday's high drama unfolded in the afternoon, when police summoned two reporters of the daily to Jubilee Hills police station and announced their arrest. The newspaper staff rushed to the station and objected to the manner in which the arrests were carried out. Succumbing to the pressure, the police took the arrested reporters to the daily's office in Jubilee Hills where arguments continued for well over two hours over the propriety of the arrest. Legal opinion The police maintained that they had sought legal opinion on whether the act of smacking the effigy with chappals attracted the provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and that they were proceeding with the arrests only after their legal counsels felt there was a prima facie case against the journalists. After several rounds of protests and gherao by the newspaper staff, the zonal DCP declared that the editor Mr. K. Srinivas was also being arrested in the same case. Till last reports came in, the newspaper staff were not allowing the police contingent to leave their office along with the three arrested persons.
