Scribes protest Sainik attack on newspaper office

AURANGABAD, JUNE 24: For more than three hours, journalists affiliated to the Nanded Union of Working Journalists blocked traffic in front of the Nanded District Collectorate even as police threatened to arrest them during a demonstration demanding the arrest of the Shiv Sainiks who attacked the office of the daily, Tarun Bharat.

The scribes, who converged at the collectorate this morning following Monday’s attack, insisted that acting collector Ramrao Shingare Patil accept their memorandum in person. The blockade continued for three hours before Patil agreed to accept the memorandum, which among other things demanded the arrest of Shiv Sena MLA, Prakash Khedkar.

The newspaper had carried a report analysing the cross-voting during the June 18 RS and state Legislative Council elections hinting at Khedkar’s involvement, `without naming him’. A spokesperson for Tarun Bharat said Khedkar’s brother Bandu, a corporator Iswar Yemul, along with other Sainiks barged into the newspaper office and beganbeating up reporters. One of the Sainiks caught hold of Balaji Vaijale, who had written the report, and tried to strangle him. Journalists from other papers, which also have offices in the building, rushed in then and shielded Vaijale.