VILLUPURAM: Three
journalists
were detained and interrogated for trying to take photos and videos of
chief minister
Edappadi K Palaniswami switching from his official
convoy
to his private vehicle at Ulundurpet in Kallakurichi district on Wednesday.
A police officer privy to the details said Palaniswami was heading to his native in Salem district in his official convoy on Wednesday, when he decided to switch to his private vehicle at Ulundurpet.
Reporters
Selva Kumar who worked for a Tamil daily, Arumugam and Hari Rajan from two TV
news
channels, present at the spot tried to take photos and videos of him switching cars.
Based on the orders of Kallakurichi superintendent of police T Jayachandran, the three were detained by Ulundurpet DSP P V VIjay Kumar and inspector Ezhilarasi, and were let off after about half an hour, when the CM;s vehicle had left the spot.
Vijay Kumar refuted claims of the journos being mistreated and said since it was a matter concerning the CM’s security; it was against protocol to capture him shifting from his convoy. Journalists from Ulundurpet, however, were upset over the issue and sent a petition against the SP and condemned the behaviour. “If the police deployed on the duty had told us not to film it, we would have just left the spot. This was humiliating,” said Hari Rajan, a colleague of one of the detained journalists.
Jayachandran told TOI that the reporters were simply stopped from getting closer to the convoy and not detained.