Gujarat IPS Association condemns defamatory press reports

Gandhinagar, Jun 3 (UNI) Executive Committee of the IPS Officers Association of Gujarat passed a resolution in defence of newly appointed City Police Commissioner O P Mathur, terming the series of reports carried against him in Times of India as malicious, defamatory and derogatory.

The executive committee of the Association, in a meeting held last evening, unanimously decided to extend all moral support to Mr Mathur in the hour of challenge.

The meeting passed a resolution stating that the reports were ''malicious, false, based on hearsay and not on facts, defamatory, derogatory in nature and casting aspersions not only on the officer concerned but on the police force as a whole''.

They alleged that the reports including some twisted facts, suiting convenience of the author, have been timed to be published in such a manner so as to attack the newly-appointed Commissioner of Police on personal grounds and to question the wisdom of the administrative function of the government.

The meeting also took into account that reports, which targetted an individual and smelt of personal vindictiveness, needed to be strongly condemned and all available legal action should be taken against the authors of the report.

The Association appreciated the matured stand taken by other media members by abstaining from indulging in such malicious propaganda and mud slinging.

Mr Mathur filed a case on last Sunday against the Resident Editor Bharat Desai and correspondent Prashant Dayal of TOI, charging them with criminal conspiracy and sedition for publishing a series of articles about his alleged links with former underworld don of the city Abdul Latif.

The daily, in its yesterday's edition, claimed that the campaign was based on the investigative journalism done by its reporter Mr Dayal. The reports questioned Mr Mathur's competence and his ability to assure security of the people of the city, which is high on the hit list of terrorists in backdrop of post-Godhra riots.

UNI PVN SSS SB HS1348