(RSF/IFEX) – On 14 April 2003, RSF denounced the arrest of R. R. Gopal, editor of the bi-weekly Tamil-language magazine “Nakkheeran”, for “illegal possession of firearms” and “sedition”. The organisation said the editor’s arrest is an attempt by police to cover up their inability to find Veerappan, one of India’s most notorious bandits. RSF said […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 14 April 2003, RSF denounced the arrest of R. R. Gopal, editor of the bi-weekly Tamil-language magazine “Nakkheeran”, for “illegal possession of firearms” and “sedition”. The organisation said the editor’s arrest is an attempt by police to cover up their inability to find Veerappan, one of India’s most notorious bandits.
RSF said Gopal and other journalists in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu are being used as scapegoats and called on the state’s chief minister, Selvi J. Jayalalithaa, to release the editor immediately and drop the charges against him.
The editor’s 11 April arrest is the latest twist in a long-standing effort to intimidate Gopal and his journalists for their reporting on Veerappan and his gang, whom security forces have been trying to capture for several years. “Nakkheeran” journalist Sivasubramanian has been in prison in neighbouring Karnataka state since November 2001, accused of acting in collusion with the bandits.
Plainclothes police officers arrested Gopal in the town of Chennai on 11 April, at around 9:00 p.m. (local time), as he was leaving his office. They claim to have found a gun on his person as well as leaflets published by the Tamil Nadu Liberation Army, a banned separatist group. Gopal was interrogated through the night. Dozens of journalists were barred from the police building and police refused to speak to them. On 12 April, a court ordered that Gopal be held at the town’s main prison until 25 April.
Two opposition members of parliament were also arrested for allegedly stealing ransom money, with Gopal, that had been gathered in 2000 to win the release of a film star that Veerappan had kidnapped. The accusations were recently repeated in a book by a former Tamil Nadu police chief.
Gopal, who is being prosecuted in half a dozen cases, has been frequently interrogated by police. A warrant for his arrest was issued in February in connection with his supposed involvement in two killings attributed to Veerappan. The Chennai High Court granted him conditional release in March.
“Nakkheeran” is known for having exposed scandals during Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s first government, in the early 1990s.
