Newspaper pays for exposing drug mafia.

After attacking a journalist and another official of the evening Kannada daily Karavali Ale in the last one week, hooligans purportedly belonging to a Hindutva fringe group on Monday destroyed over 13,000 copies of the newspaper in Mangalore and Udupi cities.

They waylaid the paper van at about 9.30 am at Kottara entry point to Mangalore city, beat up the van driver and two other employees and threw the bundles of the newspaper into the storm water drain by the side of the National Highway 66.

A complaint lodged with police by the owners of the newspaper said they were being targeted for publishing a report that charges a functionary of the fringe group Hindu Jagarana Vedike, Satyajit Surathkal with drug peddling.

Late last week, Harish Puthran, a journalist, was attacked by 10-12 persons allegedly belonging to the same group at a place called Kulai alleged BV Seetharam, editor of Karavali Ale.

“Mangalore has become an unsafe area for practicing journalism on many counts. Firstly, the fringe groups are targeting youngsters for using drugs, but now when our paper pointed out, with documentary proof, that one of their own men was instrumental in drug dealing , they have started targeting the newspaper,” Seetharam said.

“Our losses in Udupi would have been greater had not Inspector General of Police Pratap Reddy directed his force in Udupi to give police protection for the crew of the newspaper. But in Mangalore we had no such luck as there was no police cover despite our appeals,” Seetharam told DNA

Former judge of Karnataka High Court and president of the State unit of Transparency International, Justice Michael F Saldanha said

Karavali Ale was a whistleblower against the drug mafia in the state which operated under the guise of fringe groups.

“Let us not forget the suicide death of Sneha, a 17-year-old girl, due to drug addiction, on that count the police should have given sufficient protection not by just by giving police cover for the press vehicle but also by arresting the kingpin of the attacks on the newspaper, but that did not happen as the fringe groups have a free run as their political masters wrap the police in chains,” the former judge said.

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) that considers attacks on the press as an attack on the civil liberties will organise a rally on February 14 in support of whistle blowers in Mangalore, president of the PUCL Patrick D’Sa told DNA.