Vijayawada West MLA Sk. Jaleel Khan allegedly manhandled a video journalist who was shooting the former’s visit to the office of the Commissioner of Police on Thursday.
According to information, Mr. Khan, along with his men, came to the office regarding a complaint made against him allegedly by his daughter-in-law.
Upon seeing the video journalist, Nani, of a regional news channel recording his movements, Mr. Khan allegedly verbally abused the former and twisted his arm before snatching the video camera.
Nani, in his complaint to Suryarao Pet police, alleged that Mr. Khan’s men later confined him in a room and the footage of the attack was deleted at the behest of a senior police official. The Suryarao Pet police, who took up investigation, sent the victim for medical examination in the evening. Mr. Nani and other journalists in his support staged a protest outside the Police Commissioner’s office seeking justice.
“We will look into the facts of the case as per the complaint lodged and act accordingly,” Commissioner of Police Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao told The Hindu.
“The issue with my daughter-in-law was negligible and was solved amicably before the police. Afterwards, while going out of the CP’s office, we saw a videographer recording us as directed by the daughter-in-law’s brother. We immediately took the camera and deleted the video in front of the police since it was no way necessary. The videographer had no identity of a videojournalist and we assumed him as a private person,” Mr. Jaleel Khan told The Hindu.
Representatives of Indian Journalists Union and AP Union of Working Journalists and others condemned the attack on the media and demanded action against the legislator.
Mr. Khan was involved in a similar case when his henchmen attacked a photojournalist of a vernacular daily near his home in One-Town in April 2016. A complaint against him was lodged with the One-Town police station then.