Maharashtra: Journalists' Bodies Protest Detention of TV Scribe in Ink Attack Incident

Pune: Hours after Maharashtra minister Chandrakant Patil questioned his role in the ink attack case, Pimpri-Chinchwad police picked up television journalist Govind Wakade for questioning during the wee hours of Sunday.

Wakade, who works for the IBN Lokmat-a joint venture of Network 18 and Lokmat Group which covers the industrial city of Pimpri-Chinchwad, was covering a public function of Maharashtra education minister Chandrakant Patil near Pune when some protesters hurled ink at the minister for making comments on social reformers Jyotiba Phule and Babasaheb Ambedkar. 

The minister had asked how Wakade got the "exact angle when the ink was being thrown at me?" Following the ink attack, videos of the minister seeking action against the journalist surfaced on the internet. “How did that journalist get the exact angle when the ink was being thrown at me? Who is that journalist? If by tomorrow morning, this journalist is not traced, I will sit on a fast at Pimpri police station…” Patil was heard saying in a video.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the journalist was initially let go but told to return to the police station at 9 am where he was kept through the day. Police seized Wakade’s cell phone and asked him to report to the police station again at 9 am. Wakade was still at the Chinchwad police station at the time of going to the press late on Sunday.

The leading daily was quoted as saying, "We are investigating his role, I can’t say anything at this stage."

According to reports, Wakade's detention led to protests by local journalist associations and condemnation of the minister's accusations. The Indian Express reported, "A number of them gathered at the Chinchwad police station to lend support to Wakade.”

The Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists (BUJ) has strongly condemned the act in a statement that read: “ BUJ strongly condemns the Pimpri-Chinchwad police's act of picking up IBN Lokmat's Govind Wakade at 1.30 a.m. yesterday and seizing his mobile phone as well. The manner in which Pune police exercised their "duty" so speedily by picking up Wakade in the wee hours of Sunday as though he had committed some grave crime is questionable. It is clearly prompted by the motives of seeking to frighten the media at large and besmirch Wakade's standing in his own locality.”

BUJ further added that the ultimatum given by Shri Chandrakant Patil, minister for higher and technical education, indicates that the police are acting at his behest. “Mr Patil is on video record for expressing strong "reservations" about the journalist (who he did not name) and questioned his professional work because he was present to record ink being thrown at him in Chinchwad on Saturday! This is condemnable and, coming from a person who holds a ministerial office, intimidatory and reprehensible,” the organisation added.

The organisation has demanded that the police desist from taking any punitive action against the journalist for doing his professional work.