NEW DELHI: The accusation by Hyderabad journalists that the state police killed a reporter and his friend, some weeks ago and lied saying the duo were Naxalites Killed in an encounter has been confirmed by the Editors Guild of India,

A subcommittee of the guild was sent to Hyderabad in the first week of this month to investigate the allegations. It comprised eminent journalists S. Sahay, N. SJagahnathan, G.S.Bhargava and Amrik Singh. Their “firm conclusion” the police killed Ghulam Rasool and Vijaya Prasada Rao in cold blood”. And the story of an encounter was a fake one intended to cover it up.

The subcommittee has also noted credible complaints by a number of other journalists (seven of them have complained to the Press Council of India) of state/ police harassment. Its comment Journalists in the elegant area (where the police and left groups are using violence against each other and against anyone who gets involved) are, more or less, facing the kind of situation their counterpart face in Punjab. They are under pressure from both the police and the militants to do their bidding and to report or withhold a report according to their dictates.”

Ghulam Rasool was a reporter for the Telegu daily, Udayam and his friend, Vijaya, Prasada Rao were killed by the police,

The state police say Rabuel was killed in an armed encounter with them in an abandoned, roofless building near Hyderabad city. They say he was a Naxalite (the term for left groups using violence to further their aims), They have nothing to say on Vijaya Prasada Rao, though they acknowledge he was killed along with Rasool. Both the bodies were hurriedly cremated by the police.

The chief minister of Andhra Pradesh has ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident but he has not chosen the judge even after more than four weeks,

The Guild subcommittee met the wife of Ghulam Rasool and the sister of Vijaya Prasad Rao, besides photographers, crime reporters and senior journalists, it also went to the scene of the alleged ten counter and met the inspector in charge of the local station. It met the general of police, Prabakaran Rao, and the chief minister, Janardana Reddy.

It says it got “nothing” from the state authorities. The police station in charge (SHO) said he was in hospital on the day of the incident (encounter). As for the relevant file, it was with someone who was not available. The state police chief said he would say nothing since an inquiry had been ordered, All he would do, he told them, was to give them a copy of the official report right after the incident (FIR) registered by the police at the police station. t was a public document, he said. The committee took it and asked him to give them a copy of the autopsy report on the bodies, as that also was a public document. He refused.

The chief minister said he would wait till the inquiry commission did its job. The judge for the job had not been named, since the chief justice of the high court had not sent him any name. He volunteered to send a reminder to the C J, says the committee,

The committee has pointed out the following discrepancies.

Press photographers were prevented from taking pictures of the two bodies though it is legally allowed and is welcomed by the police in other encounters. The police itself took the photographs and supplied these two newspapers; they were long shots, not a close up of the bodies.

“The police hurried through the cremation, even though Rasool was a Muslim and Prasada Rao a Christian. The police cannot say they did not know the reign the victims: Rasool was circumcised and Rao was, it appears, wearing a cross. The police themselves admitted before the cremation that Rasool was one of the two killed, They did not give his body to his family or bury him themselves.

So hasty was the cremation, even the state home minister was not told about it was over. The day after the killing, the police supplied photographs were published and the bodies were recognized, Journalists rushed to the home minister, Mysoora Reddy, who told them that the bodies would be given to them in an hour. Close to the hour, the minister disappeared, making him unavailable for days.

Hospital rules require (the bodies were taken tone) such corpses to be kept for a week;

The police refused to give the committee the medical and inquest reports instead they gave only the FIR copy, which was their version of the incident;

They explained why Rasool had been killed, in an official press release, before the journalists reacted; It said he was guilty of crimes ranging from abetment to murder to extortion for money. If this was 50, why was he allowed to move about and function all this while? And what about Prasada Rao? He was not officially identified,

The nature of the abandoned and roofless building where the alleged encounter took place is of particular interest. The committee says in such a place injuries to some policemen were inevitable if they had actually been a counter. But even the police FIR make no such claim,

The FIR claims that three other participants in the alleged Naxalite meeting in that place escaped. How? The walls cannot be easily sealed and the police were all around.

Rasool, it appears, had been doing reports on land scams, in the area in which the local police were allegedly involved. He had named them, including a deputy superintendent of police. The committee says there is not enough evidence on why he was killed.

They have noted the surmise about the police wanting to stop these reports. Or another that he was suspected of being a Naxalite because he might have met some Naxalite in the course of his duty and so, was slated for elimination with the governments“ get tough” Policy on these groups. He killing itself is admitted by the police. Rasool employers (ironically, the Udayam daily is owned by a Congress MP) have testified about his professional performance, never having been influenced by his personal beliefs none has so averred, including the police,

NEW DELHI: Railway protection force I G, MB pally has been appointed commissioner of Delhi police, in place of Arun according to home ministry sources in the Indian capital New Delhi Sunday.

Article extracted from this publication >> February 28, 1992