Strongly defending its decision to file a complaint against Tamil magazine Nakkheeran’s editorR.R. Gopal and his employees, the Raj Bhavan on Friday denied that Governor Banwarilal Purohit or his office had any links with Nirmala Devi, who has been jailed for allegedly attempting to lure college girls into providing sexual favours for higher officials.
Accusing Nakkheeran of practising ‘yellow journalism’, an official release said the Raj Bhavan “can and will never be cowed by actions aimed at hurting the dignity of the High Office”.
The three-page statement, issued by the Joint Director (PR) at the Raj Bhavan, also said that “no threats, direct or indirect, on a constitutional authority like the Honourable Governor, will be tolerated”. It did not address the criticism of the Raj Bhavan’s insistence on invoking Section 124 of the Indian Penal Code (Assaulting President / Governor) against the editor, staff and distributors of Nakkheeran.
'Absolute falsehood’
The release said a complaint was given having been hurt by the continuous baseless slander.
The Raj Bhavan said there was “only absolute falsehood” and not a shred of truth in the claims of links between the Governor and Ms. Devi. “The statement given by her [Ms. Devi] to the police will itself bear out the truth. This being the case, it is a matter of humour to say that press freedom is being threatened on account of action being taken under the law after much patience and tolerance to stop a slanderous, vulgar and cowardly way of attacking the first citizen of the State,” the statement said.
The Raj Bhavan said it had maintained a “dignified silence” for more than six months as the law was taking its course, and the matter was under investigation and was before the court for trial.
“It was indeed shocking to see a resurfacing of yellow journalism in an issue of the magazine Nakkheeran in late September after the charge-sheets had been filed and the investigation completed,” the statement said, adding that those who claimed to have undertaken investigative journalism had not even bothered to verify the actual statement given by Ms. Devi to the police.
The Raj Bhavan said it was a matter of regret that this kind of ‘yellow journalism’ was supported by respectable people, “who, it appears, are not aware of the facts”. Slamming the magazine for “casualness and cowardice in journalistic ethics”, the statement said Ms. Devi had never entered the Raj Bhavan in the last one year, and “she does not have any acquaintance with the Honourable Governor or the Secretary to the Governor or any of the officers working in the Raj Bhavan”.
Neither did Mr. Purohit visit the guest house at the Madurai Kamaraj University, nor did his secretary accompany him, the Raj Bhavan said.
“It can only be a deep sense of hatred towards goodness and truth that could have driven any journalist to write the articles in the manner they appeared in Nakkheeran,” the statement said.
HC slams govt.
The Madras High Court on Friday disapproved of the invocation of Section 124 (assaulting President/Governor with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power) of Indian Penal Code against 31 employees and three distributors of Nakkheeran for having published a series of articles.
Justice M. Dhandapani was vocal about the issue when anticipatory bail applications filed by the 34 accused came up. “How can publishing some articles in the print media attract Section 124? It can only attract Sections 499 and 500 (criminal defamation),” the judge told the prosecution.