PCI Takes Suo-Motu Cognizance Of Police Assault On 3 Journos In Odisha’s Nabarangpur
Papadahandi/New Delhi: The Press Council of India (PCI) has taken suo-motu cognizance of police excess that occurred on Papadahandi police station premises in Nabarangpur on September 14.
An official source said today that PCI chairperson Smt Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai has expressed her deep concern over the alleged police excess conducted by Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Jayakrushna Behera. The cop beat the three scribes with a hard plastic pipe very inhumanly, whereby the local reporters were critically wounded, a press communiqué issued by the PCI mentioned.
“Taking suo-motu cognizance on the issue, the Hon’ble Chairperson has directed the Government of Odisha through its Chief Secretary, the Secretary, Home (Police) Department and the Director General of Police, Odisha to submit a Report on the facts of the case at the earliest,” the press note read.
It is pertinent to mention, the victim scribes had gone to Papadahandi police station to collect news regarding a woman earlier picked up by the cops from Maidalpur locality in Nabarangpur district.
The three journos are Sumit Ghanta, Praveen Shatnami and Omprakash Karamchand Das. The aggrieved newsmen had claimed that the senior police official even did not spare them despite the latter revealing their identities. A woman named Lijarani Patnaik, who was present there, was also manhandled.
Later, a number of journalists from the fraternity in Nabarangpur along with family of the victim woman Lijarani staged a sit-in on the spot against the police excess and unfriendly attitude shown to public.
