‘Journalists were beaten up on demolition day’

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh today told the Liberhan Commission that journalists were beaten up at the time of the demolition of the disputed structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 and were prevented from taking photographs of the incident, but said no arrests were made as it was very difficult to identify those persons in the crowd.

‘‘There is evidence, given by press persons, that journalists were beaten up on that day. But there is nothing to corroborate that and even the CBI could not collect any corroborative evidence,’’ Kalyan Singh’s counsel B.B.Saxena told Justice M.S.Liberhan. But it was clear that those who beat up the journalists and prevented them from taking photographs were against the Kalyan Singh government and also did not want the incident to be publicised with photographs, he contended.

However, the counsel said the Kalyan Singh government, which was in power then, had not invited the media on that day to the scene of the incident nor sent any passes to the press.

Though there were over 100 police personnel near the disputed structure at the time of the incident, no one was arrested for roughing up media persons as the site was over-crowded and therefore it was difficult to identify the culprits, the counsel said.