Journalists dubbed SIMI terrorists; beaten up by Bhopal police

Principal Correspondent

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: Two senior journalists of state capital Bhopal were dubbed ‘SIMI terrorists’, beaten up mercilessly and illegally detained by Bhopal police during wee hours of Tuesday.

After the incident came to light on Tuesday morning and journalists reached the local Awadhpuri police station to demand action, the Superintendent of Police (North) Anushuman Singh suspended the three accused policemen – an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) and two head constables.

The accused policemen are ASI RS Singh and head constables Santosh Yadav and Subhash Tyagi to the Awadhpuri police station.

Also a preliminary enquiry (PE) to be conducted by city superintendent of police (CSP), Govindpura, Ajay Singh, has been instituted. SP Singh has assured that strictest possible action would be taken against the accused policemen if their guilt was proven in the inquiry.

According to information available, the journalists – Krishna Mohan Tiwari and Vijay Prabhat Shukla of a major Hindi daily of the capital – were returning home after night duty on Monday. At around 2.00am, they were accosted by five policemen including the three accused.

Despite the two journalists identifying themselves, the policemen – some of whom were reportedly drunk – dubbed them ‘SIMI terrorists’ and started beating them up. After sometime, the journalists were taken to the Awadhpuri police station and further beaten up.

They were allowed to go only at around 4.00am and with threat that if they complained to anyone, they would be murdered by goons known to policemen, the journalists have alleged.

One of the journalists however managed to make an audio recording of the abuse and the beating (sounds) in his cell phone and this has been handed over to senior officials.