Bastar Police in dock over ‘kill scribes’ audio

Bhopal: Scribes of the Bastar conflict zone in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday released an audio clip in which a purported police officer was heard ordering his juniors to kill journalists, found covering Naxal incidents in their area.

In the 41-second clip released by Bijapur district press club president Ganesh Mishra, a voice was heard saying in Hindi, “High alert rahena… aur udhar se koi patrakar… jo hai…matlab jo naxaliyonko cover karne jayega.. usko sidha marba dena… samajh gaye? (Stay alert. Get journalists found covering Naxals there killed. Understood?)”. Special director general of police (DGP, Naxal operation) of A.M. Awasthi informed the media that inspector-general of police (IG), Bastar, Vivekanand Sinha has been asked to probe into the matter.

“Action will be taken against the police officer concerned if the audio clip will be found genuine”, he added. In a statement, Mr Mishra expressed concern over the security of scribes covering Maoist violence in Bastar and urged the Chhattisgarh government to order a probe into it. “Scribes covering conflict zone of Bastar have been sandwiched between Naxals and security forces. On one hand, security forces are intimidating journalists and on the other, Naxals are killing journalists branding them as police informers”, Mr Mishra said.

A similar audio clip had surfaced in 2005 when a team of journalists had entered remote Bastar to cover Naxal incidents.

A police officer was then taken to task and later transferred in connection with the incident. It was yet to be ascertained if the audio clip is the old one or a fresh clip. At least two journalists were killed earlier after being branded as police informers by Maoists.

The deceased scribes, Sai Reddy and Nemi Chand Jain, had hailed from south Bastar districts of Bijapur and Sukma. At least six journalists have so far been booked under the Chhattisgarh Public Security Act on charges of aiding Naxals.