Day after assault on journalist, Maharashtra minister visits spot

Mumbai, April 13 (IANS) Taking a serious view of Thursday's manhandling of a senior Mumbai journalist, Home Minister R.R. Patil Friday visited the site of an illegal canteen near Dadar railway station to take stock of the situation, an aide said.

Patil went around the canteen, inspected the entire locality, including the vicinity of Dadar station, the busiest in Mumbai and the junction between Western Railway and Central Railway, for nearly two-and-hours Friday afternoon.

The visit came following the assault, illegal detention and harassment of a Navbharat Times senior reporter Anand Mishra, by some anti-social elements.

Mishra had gone to investigate a huge illegal canteen that was being operated without the knowledge of the railway and civic authorities, when some of the (canteen) operators detained him, tied his arms behind the back and banged his head on a wall, assaulted and deleted photographs from his camera.

"The minister has taken serious of the assault on a media person and decided to personally intervene and speed up the investigations," the aide said.

Patil ordered the police to keep under detention the canteen owner until the other employees who attacked Mishra are caught.

He also expressed shock at the illegal vendors on the pavements outside the railway and ordered the police and civic authorities to clear the encroachments within two hours, and objected to empty boxes around which could pose a majority security risk.

Later, he visited Shivaji Park Police Station to inquire into the status of the investigations in the case and directed the police to nab the culprits expeditiously.