Journos' arrest: No FIR, cops in a fix

Hubballi/Bengaluru: After all that chest thumping and boisterous statements about the privileges of Legislators, those who averred that journalist and editor Ravi Belagere and the elusive journalist, Anil Raj, would be caught and put behind bars for their ‘sins,’ are now at their wit’s end.

Reason: In the absence of an FIR, how can they be arrested? Impossible, something the police knows, the Speaker knows and the Assembly knows. Police officers are now absolutely clueless on how to arrest  Belagere and Anil Raj, after they were handed a one-year prison term and a fine of Rs 10,000 by Speaker K B Koliwad. Realising that they had run into a dead end amid mounting criticism against attempts to muzzle the media, privileges committee chairman Kimmane Ratnakar pleaded with the Speaker to keep the controversial order on hold but the Speaker pleaded helplessness contending that he did not have powers revoke an order approved by the House.

Advocate V Shankarappa, who moved the high court on behalf of the editors, has threatened to register a complaint of illegal detention against the cops.

“In this case, there is no FIR or warrant. This has happened for the first time in the history of Karnataka, it will take time to figure out the legal aspects,” said a senior police officer.

In Hubballi, Belagere, who had slipped out of SDM hospital in Dharwad, resurfaced on Tuesday, and got admitted to Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) complaining of chest pain and blood sugar variations.

Mr Belagere had an unexpected visitor in former BJP chief minister Jagadish Shettar who told the media the move to send the journalists to prison was not thoroughly discussed in the assembly before it was passed.