Senior journalist faces police ire in UP after report on deputy CMO's death

A senior journalist of a Hindi news channel was allegedly picked up ''forcibly'' and manhandled by the police in Hazratganj area of Lucknow.

Shalabh Mani Tripathi, state bureau chief of IBN7, and his assistant Manoj Tripathi were picked up by SP (city) BP Ashok and circle officer Anup Kumar as they were coming out of their office on Sunday evening, the reporter said.

Tripathi said they were attacked for his report on the deputy chief medical officer YS Sachan, who was found dead in the Lucknow Jail hospital, and added that the police were trying to implicate him in a false case.

The senior journalist had been tracking Sachan's death closely, reporting on the government's position on the case.

The UP government had first called it a case of suicide but had later backtracked, registering the case of murder, under pressure from Sachan's family and the medico-legal fraternity.

Police claimed that Tripathi's driver had misbehaved with a police constable's wife and when the cops there tried to stop him, Tripathi retaliated aggressively and was therefore detained.

Angry journalists in Lucknow marched up to the CM's residence around midnight to register their protest against the police high-handedness.

Meanwhile, trying to pacify the angry journalists, Navneet Sehgal, secretary to the chief minister, said, ''We have received a complaint. We will register a case. In the mean time we have removed those officers and suspended them."