Times of India faces sedition charges

The newly appointed Chief Commissioner of Police has pressed criminal charges of sedition and treason against the Times of India, its Resident Editor and a correspondent. Over the past few days, the Times of India published a series of articles questioning the appointment of Mr. O.P. Mathur as the police commissioner of Ahmedabad.

The slugfest started when the Times published a series of articles linked below:

• Was A’bad CP a Latif man? – By Prashant Dayal, 27 May 2008
• How can A’bad be safe in his hands? Part I – By Prashant Dayal, 28 May 2008
• How can A’bad be safe in his hands? Part II – By Prashant Dayal, 28 May 2008
• OPM High A’bad can do without – By Prashant Dayal, 29 May 2008
• Crooked path to the crown – By Prashant Dayal, 30 May 2008
• Latif an ISI man and Mathur a Latif man? – By Prashant Dayal, 31 May 2008
• Threatened man refuses to meet Mathur for gun – By Prashant Dayal, 31 May 2008

Prima facie, there remains no doubt that the Times of India engaged in yellow journalism to charge up public angst against the decision by the state government. A number of assertions made within these articles are largely based on old CBI reports, much of which includes statements by Abdul Khurdush, an accomplice of Latif who was the leader of the organized crime syndicate in Ahmedabad in the early 90s.

Khurdush told CBI that because of political pressure exerted by Rauf, Latif’s plans to have four to five members of his gang surrendered before the police, were not working out. These plans, according to Khurdush, were being hatched by Latif in consultation with senior police officers and higher-ups in the government headed by then chief minister, late Chimanbhai Patel.

Khurdush stated before the CBI that Latif knew Mathur “very well” and it was Mathur who communicated to Latif that Rauf was throwing a spanner in the surrender plan. At this, Khurdush stated, Latif got very angry with Rauf. Days later, the Latif gang eliminated Rauf in a sensational killing [...] [link]

The fact remains that none of this has been proven in a court of law. The journalist in question probably understood this very well and has meticulously quoted CBI reports as the source. This does not, however, justify the complacence of the editorial team while publishing these articles without any regard to the reputation and the privacy of Mr. Mathur. All of these articles were published on the front page of the national daily and in matter of five days, they have blown the credibility of the man to smithereens.

The Executive Committee of the Indian Police Service Association made a public resolution on June 2, 2008 which read:

The reports, including some twisted facts suiting convenience of the author of nearly 15 years vintage, have been timed to be published in such a manner so as to attack the newly appointed Commissioner of Police on personal grounds, and to question the wisdom of the administrative function of the government.

Such reports which target an individual and smell of personal vindictiveness need to be strongly condemned and all available legal action should be taken against the authors of the reports.

The Governor of Gujarat, Mr. Naval Kishore Sharma was approached by a number of journalists from Gujarat. The Hindu reports:

The Governor even while making it clear the limitations of his office in dealing with such issues, promised to look into the matter and at the same time advised the media persons not to transgress the democratic rights and misuse the freedom of the press.

The complaint and the charges of sedition and treason, however, do not have any merit. I see this heading towards a possible settlement once the finer points of the case are made out clearly.