The MRA Marg police on Tuesday arrested two more accused in connection with the assault on photojournalists outside Bombay House on November 4. The accused are security personnel attached to the TOPS security firm contracted by the Tata Group for Bombay House.
The two arrested accused have been identified as Swapnil Dilip Chaskar (22) and Pravin Ramesh Salunkhe (29). The arrests on Friday takes the total count to seven — Ganesh Shinde (28), Mayur Gurav (28), Shankar Ayyar (41), Ashok Bamne (41) and Manvir Prajapati (28). The three arrested on Monday —Banne, Prajapati and Ayyar — were released on a bail amount of Rs 10,000.
According to the MRA Marg police, the three photojournalists who were attacked — Atul Kamble from Mid-Day, S.L. Shantakumar from Times of India and Arijit Sen from Hindustan Times — provided a description of the security personnel. On Friday, the lensmen who had gone to cover the visit of Cyrus Mistry, former chairman of Tata Sons to Bombay House, were brutally beaten up by the security personnel. The police said that when questioned, the security personnel revealed that one of them had been pushed when the photographers were trying to click pictures of Mr Mistry.
“The accused that were arrested previously provided us with their names and other identity details. We called them in for formal questioning and later placed them under arrest,” said Sukhlal Varpe, senior inspector of MRA Marg police station.
The police had also contacted the Tata Group and TOPS security to provide a list of all the security personnel on duty at the time of the incident. “The arrested accused had all reported on duty on all days after the incident too,” said a police source.
200 journos take part in protest march
Around 200 journalists from Mumbai held a protest march on Tuesday afternoon against TOPS security and Tata. The protest was against assaults on photojournalists who were attacked by security guards of TOPS working for Tata.
The silent protest started from Hutatama Chowk and went on to Bombay House, where the journalists sat down on the road outside the office of the Tata Group.
The demands were that firstly the Tata Group should sack TOPS security and secondly, the offence of attacking journalists should be made a non-cognisable offence.
