Grave-digging: Activists slam cops for bid to quiz TV reporter

Human rights activists have taken exception to the Gujarat Polices move to question TV journalist Rahul Singh in connection with the digging of mass graves of victims of 2002 riots in Panderwala,saying it amounted to intimidating the press.

Human rights activists have taken exception to the Gujarat Polices move to question TV journalist Rahul Singh in connection with the digging of mass graves of victims of 2002 riots in Panderwala,saying it amounted to intimidating the press.

Singh,who was working for a TV channel in Gujarat when the incident took place,had reported the digging of graves near Godhra in 2005.

On Wednesday,a six-member team Gujarat Police team went to his home in Bhopal with court summons. Rahul was not at home and his father,N K Singh,a senior journalist,refused to receive the summons on behalf of his son.

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Police have registered a case against those involved in the digging,saying they had tried to destroy evidence. Four persons,including a former aide of Teesta Setalvad,have already been booked,arrested and questioned in the case.

General secretary of the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) general secretary Gautam Thakar said the polices latest move amounted to intimidation and harassment,urging the police not to harass the journalist in the Panderwada case. Vadodara-based human rights activist J S Bandukwala said the state government was deliberately trying to fix journalists who exposed its misdeeds.

When contacted,Panchmahals SP G R Mothaliya said,The police only want to interrogate the journalist to find out who informed him about the grave digging,why did he go to Panderwada,and what did he do there.

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