Punjab Police raid newspaper office

Mohali, Mar 7 (UNI) A Punjab Police party from Ludhiana today raided the office of 'Rozana Spokesman', a Punjabi daily published from here.

The raid was conducted following the registeration of a case under section 155 at Basti Jodewal police station in Ludhiana after the publication of an allegedly derogatory article on February 25 against a particular community. The case was registered on the complaint of Guru Ravi Dass Institution against the daily's Editor-in-chief Joginder Singh and Harbhajan Singh, who had written the article.

The police party which remained at the newspaper office for about two hours noted the statement of the daily's Managing Director Jagjit Kaur. She told them that Mr Joginder Singh was admitted at the Apollo Hospital, New Delhi following cardiac problem while the whereabouts of Harbhajan Singh, a contributor to the paper were not known.

The Guru Ravi Dass Institution had demanded the arrest of the newspaper Editor and the writer of the article. A similar case was also registered at Jalandhar and Kapurthala.

Mrs Jagjit Kaur when contacted said that the daily had published an apology on February 27. '' We have nothing against anyone and respect Bhagat Ravi Dass,'' she said.

She maintained that the raid was conducted at the behest of the Punjab government and was an infrigment on the freedom of the press.

''The government was bent upon uosing the daily,'' she alleged.

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