Chhattisgarh DGP Vishwaranjan issues veiled threat to encounter Journalists

Several Journalists from Tehelka ,The Hindu, Indian express and other news channels who have interviewed Maoist leaders along website owners who post articles about Maoists are on the hit list of Security Agencies. Hem Chandra Pandey who was kidnapped from Nagpur and murdered by the APSIB was deliberately murdered along with Com Azad to send a strong message to the journalist fraternity some of whom had been giving balanced reports on the Maoist movement in India.

Journalists sympathising with Naxals under watch

Intelligence agencies monitoring the Naxal activities have started keeping tabs on journalists sympathising with Naxals on information provided by Andhra Pradesh police after the killing of a mediaperson with Naxal leader Cherukhuri Rajkumar alias Azad in an encounter recently.The surveillance includes electronic snooping,phone tapping and even physical monitoring of the movements of journalists and sympathizers in both the real and virtual worlds.

Confirming the development to UNI, highly-placed official sources here said the details gathered from Azad after the encounter have been forwarded to all the Naxal-affected states besides Chhattisgarh by the Andhra Pradesh police.

The names of mediapersons in the list of Naxal sympathisers are those who frequent the Naxal-dominated areas on the state's border with four other Naxal-affected states while also meeting the Maoist leaders.

''We cannot share everything with the media. Those mediapersons who are working for Naxals are already under watch by the intelligence agencies and action would be initiated when substantial proof is gathered against them,'' Chhattisgarh Director General of Police Vishwaranjan said.

He said one cannot stop the mediapersons from entering the jungles and interviewing the Maoist leaders but it is certainly dangerous to enter the jungle during an anti-naxal operation being carried out by the security forces.

''Nothing can be done about mediapersons who take the risk of entering the jungles during an operation and get stuck inside, they might become victims of draculas who like to feast on their blood '' Mr Vishwaranjan added.

Central Chronicle