The members of media fraternity on Friday met the senior police officials of the Jalandhar (rural) police district here to demand transfer of the Phillaur police station SHO Gulshan Lal Sharma for allegedly intimidating and misbehaving with the journalists.
The journalists led by the Punjab Press Club president Major Singh and Print and Electronic Media Association (PEMA) Sanjeev Toni met the SP Rajinder Singh and the SP Gurmeet Singh at SSP office here and raised their demand for Sharma's immediate transfer. SSP Yurinder Singh Hayre was on leave.
The reporters from Phillaur and Goraya including Satinder Sharma, Surjit Singh Barnala, Sarbjit Gill and Parmod Kaushal alleged that the SHO had been sending them indirect messages that false cases would be registered against reporters for raising voice against his alleged highhandedness.
During the meeting, Major Singh alleged that Sharma had engineered protests against media persons in his presence at local police station recently with an aim to intimidate the reporters, who dare reporting against the alleged misdeeds of the police officer.
"Besides, Sharma tried to implicate the reporters in false case, as one of his henchman self inflicted injuries to show as if the reporters attacked him with sharp edged weapons that too in the main bazaar. A high level inquiry should be carried out in this incident and a case should be registered against the SHO for hatching a criminal conspiracy against the reporters of Phillaur," he alleged.
{{/usCountry}}"Besides, Sharma tried to implicate the reporters in false case, as one of his henchman self inflicted injuries to show as if the reporters attacked him with sharp edged weapons that too in the main bazaar. A high level inquiry should be carried out in this incident and a case should be registered against the SHO for hatching a criminal conspiracy against the reporters of Phillaur," he alleged.
{{/usCountry}}SP Rajinder Singh assured that the SSP would be apprised of the demands of the journalists tomorrow. "The SSP will decide action to be initiated against the SHO, if any and intimation will be provided to the journalists accordingly," he quipped.
"We will meet the chief minister and deputy chief minister to effectively press our demands, in case the local police authorities will fail to act against the erring cops," Major Singh revealed.