Kolkata:
At least 15 media persons were beaten up and heckled by outsiders during the Salt Lake civic polls in Kolkata today. A woman reporter of a Bengali news channel also claims she was threatened with rape.
Seven "outsiders" were detained by the police but released in the evening. Trinamool legislator Arjun Singh visited the police station a little before they were released.
Among those attacked was Sanjay Chattopadhyay, photographer with The Telegraph newspaper. He was beaten up first at the AB-AC Park and later hit on the head at FD block. He is in hospital. So are Aritrik Bhattacharya and Partha Sarathi Chakraborty of ABP Ananda news channel and Mintu Basak, camperaperson of 24 Ghanta news channel.
Others injured include Arka Dey and Dipankar Jana of News Time, Mayukh Thakur Chakraborty, Prakash Sinha and Ajay Das of ABP Ananda, Atirath Ghosh and Suraj Prasad of ETV, Debarati Ghosh and Bikram Das of 24 Ghanta and Sarmin Begum and Tanmay Dutta Biswas of Kolkata TV.
The Kolkata Press Club has issued a statement condemning the attack on the media. "We note with immense concern that many of our fellow Journalists and Photo Journalists were either attacked or roughed up allegedly by ruling party members or hoodlums when they were discharging their duties during today's election in Salt Lake, Rajarhat, as also in Bally and Asansol," the statement said.
Urban development minister Firhad Hakim visited some of the journalists in hospital. "Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has sent me. We condemn the attack on journalists," he said but would not admit Trinamool supporters were involved. Outsiders backed by CPM may have been involved, he suggested. The CPM dismissed that claim.