Bangalore:
The state CID, which is investigating the high profile Swami Nithyananda case, is allegedly planning to take legal action against a television journalist for airing visuals of Nithyananda's interrogation.
(Read : Interrogating Sex Swami was like a 'punishment')MS Raghavendra, producer of a daily crime programme that's broadcast on Udaya TV, had shown visuals of officials questioning the self-proclaimed godman in a chamber inside the CID head quarters. Raghavendra had procured the visuals that were recorded on CCTV camera from a source. (
Read: Swami's sex CD sells for Rs 1,000)
However, the investigating agency is allegedly planning to book him on charges that include conspiring against the state and data theft. The journalist says he has received calls from CID officials asking him surrender before them. "They even threatened me of dire consequences if I failed to comply. It's very scary. They had come to my house past mid-night when I was out on an assignment," said the winner of Ramanath Goenka Award for investigative journalism.
But D V Guruprasad, DGP of the investigating agency, denied reports of CID harassing the journalist. "You are casting aspersions on us. I will file a defamation case against you if you write anything about this," he told the Mid-Day reporter.
Home Minister Dr VS Acharya, on the other hand, admitted that the department is planning to book some journalists, including Raghavendra. "As a few of them have grown so impish, we have to put brakes on them," he said. The state Home Minister fired salvos against Raghavendra for his attacks on the system as a journalist.
Meanwhile, K Diwakar, legal advisor to the Chief Minister, has contradicted Dr Acharya's statement. "The government doesn't have any intention of harassing journalists. It would be like curbing the freedom of the press. As a matter of policy, we welcome criticism but have no plans of indulging in witch hunting."
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