Cop roughs up TV scribe covering farmers' protest

While covering the Tamil Nadu farmers' protest near Jantar Mantar on Sunday, a television journalist was allegedly manhandled at Vijay Chowk by a Delhi Police Inspector.

The journalist, Arvind Gunasekhara, from Tamil news channel Thanthi TV alleged that he was forcibly pushed into a bus, along with 30 odd protesters by Delhi Police personnel.

When he tried to convince them that he was a journalist, the inspector broke his spectacles and briefly detained him, before releasing him.

Meanwhile, the police tried to downplay the incident, claiming that the inspector accused of manhandling the scribe could not distinguish whether he was a protestor or a journalist and had also apologised to him personally.

The incident occurred on Sunday afternoon, when Arvind Gunasekhara was having his lunch at Vijay Chowk, before noticing a group of protestors at Vijay Chowk.

"I thought it was the Tamil Nadu farmers' protest and called my VJ as some other news channels were also at the spot," said Arvind.

"Suddenly, I was pushed from behind by an inspector-level policeman, by the name of K L Yadav, who pushed me into a bus along with other protestors. I tried to reason with him, kept telling him in English that I can show my identification card and I am a journalist. But he broke my spectacles and pushed me inside," Arvind said.

Later, the inspector realised his error and apologised to the scribe, saying that he mistook him for a protestor and asked for forgiveness as he Arvind him "like his son".

"Initially, I thought that the policeman did not understand English. But he later apologised in English. I don't know why they manhandled me like that," Arun added.

Police said the incident will be looked into and senior officials have also been informed about it. Special Commissioner of Police S B K Singh also reportedly called up the scribe to inquire into the incident.