Ahmedabad, January 19:The NDTV office here was ransacked on Saturday morning and a staffer beaten up by a group of around 20 people, who identified themselves as members of right wing outfit Hindu Samrajya Sena (HSS). The incident came as a protest against the news channel conducting an SMS poll with noted painter M F Husain as a contender for the Bharat Ratna. Before leaving the place, the accused left behind several banners of their organisation and even put a small lock on one of the office entrance doors.

Armed with hockey sticks and metal rods, the group came to the NDTV office located in Suvarn Nagar Society in the Memnagar area around 11 am, reportedly searching for some reporters who worked there. Unable to find any reporter, the accused broke into the office premises and attacked an office assistant, Salim Sheikh (22), with hockey sticks. They vandalised office furniture, window panes, some equipment and an air conditioner and fled in their vehicles—a Maruti van and a few two wheelers— within 30 minutes.

After several attempts made by NDTV staffers, a police team reached the spot well after the attackers had left. Joint Commissioner of Police (Sector 1) Satish Sharma, who personally visited the NDTV office and later V S Hospital where Sheikh was being treated, said, “Prime accused in the case is a resident of the Sabarmati area, Ashok Sharma, and he along with others will be arrested soon. The state Government is taking up the issue seriously and wants immediate action by police. In fact, the state Home Minister had himself called me up for the same.”

A former member of the Bajrang Dal, Sharma heads the HSS. He even called up the NDTV office an hour after the incident. NDTV special correspondent Joydeep Ray said, “Sharma claimed that he was out of the city for a wedding, but did take the responsibility of the attack on our office.” Ray added that the attack came two days after some members of the group had come to their office late on Thursday.

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