Subhas Chandra Pattanayak
Who doesn’t tolerate the moon on the sky? Obviously, the thieves. Orissa administration is intolerant to journalists. Instances are rampant in these pages.
Sad.
A miscreant, by name Kailas Bastia, belonging to village Sithalo, attempted to murder Dharitri reporter of Ali Pingala, Chandrakant Das, on 29 April 2010 at 10.30 in the fore noon in the Dihasithalo square near Niali in the district of Cuttack declaring openly that he was avenging the report on rubbery that his paper had published. Besides the bloody attack, Basita also looted the gold chain and cash worth totaling more than Rs.25 thousand before the general public rushed to the rescue of the Journalist.
The people helped Das to get medical treatment and reach the police center at nearby Karsada where he filed his complaint in writing at 11 AM. But the police did not show any interest in the matter.
Apprehending that the local police there was in nexus with the criminal, the Jagatsingpur District Association of Journalists preferred a memorandum by fax to the Director General of Police urging upon him to ensure that Das’s looted valuables and cash be recovered from Bastia and penal actions be initiated against him for having attempted to murder journalist Das to avenge the exposure in his paper.
The DGP did not respond.
It prodded the Jagatsinghpur journalists to stage a sitting-in demonstration in front of the Office of the DGP on 5 May, 2010 in protest against the police-criminal nexus in the matter of assault on mediapersons.
Curiously the DGP has preferred to slough over the demonstration as no action against the culprit is yet initiated.