DGP Prakash Mishra on Thursday ordered a departmental inquiry into the alleged police laxity in giving protection to two local TV journalists when they were abducted and attacked by some PG students of the SCB Medical College here last week.
The probe to be conducted by an ACP-rank officer would also find out as to why the concerned police station delayed in registering the FIR of the journalists and failed to take action against the medical students whose names appeared in the FIR, the DGP said.
Assuring a delegation of journalists, Mishra informed that ACP Aswini Mohanty would enquire into the incident and the inquiry would be supervised by city DCP S Praveen Kumar. He asserted that he would be in possession of the inquiry report in seven to ten days and take appropriate action against those guilty within the same period.
It may be mentioned that at least four PG students of the medical college abducted two local TV journalists on June 15 from the hospital premises and kept them captive for over two hours at an undisclosed place. During this period, more than 15 other students of the medical college tortured and bullied the journalists.
“Although the local police inspector Mr Sk Sarrifuddin was present at the spot when the PG students abducted us, he did not interfere or made any attempt to rescue us from the clutches of the abductors. The police inspector even did not register our FIR after we were let off the unruly students,” said one of the journalists.
Meanwhile, a PIl was filed in the Odisha HC on Thursday seeking court’s intervention in the alleged police inaction over the issue of alleged attack on journalists. The PIl also questioned over the repeated lawlessness in the medical college where students are constantly found on the wrong side.
The Medical Bachhao Committee headed by city Congress leader Suresh Chandra Mohapatra on Thursday staged a demonstration in front of the office of the SCB Hospital Superintendent demanding immediate action against the students who attacked the journalists, and misbehaved with a woman attendant of a patient in the orthopaedic ward of the hospital on Tuesday night.