With state and Central forces ready to launch a major offensive against Naxalites, the Chhattisgarh Police have served notices on a couple of print and electronic media journalists in the strife-torn tribal Bastar region, asking them to explain the basis of reports quoting Maoist “versions” of recent encounters.

The Dantewada police has served notices under the CrPC Section 91 on two Hindi journalists after they published the version of Ramanna, a leader of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), of the September 19 encounter near Singanmadugu in South Bastar. In Bastar, the police also slapped a notice on Rakesh Shukla, a TV Journalist in Kanker, asking him to appear for recording a statement after the regional channel telecast footage, purportedly showing Maoists claiming responsibility of the killing of Bastar Janpad Panchayat president Tansen Kashyap, son of BJP MP Baliram Kashyap.

“The police served the notice on us at around 8.30 pm, asking us to reply within three hours. We furnished our replies, pointing out that the Maoist version published in the newspaper was on the basis of a phone call. The caller, who identified himself as Maoist leader Ramanna, had alleged that some of those gunned down during the ongoing ‘Operation Green Hunt’ were not rebels but innocent villagers,” journalist Anil Mishra said.

Along with its notice to Shukla, the police also attached a memorandum submitted by BJP’s youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morha stating that the media had hurt the sentiments of local people by telecasting the Maoist version. The memorandum demanded banning of media organisations that publish news against the government.

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