Police in Delhi claim to have foiled a plot to murder the journalists whose undercover film of senior politicians taking bribes rocked India's government in March.
The Defence Minister, George Fernandes, and the president of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads the ruling coalition, were forced to resign after
the spy cameras of a news website called Tehelka.com caught dozens of senior bureaucrats, army officers and politicians discussing arms procurement. The exposé plunged the government into crisis.
Two weeks later, the managing director and editor-in- chief of Tehelka, Tarun Tejpal, was informed that he was to be given "Z-category" security, with armed guards at his home and office and a team tailing him everywhere by car. The measures struck many as excessive until last Friday.
Mr Tejpal said yesterday: "On Friday night there was a flurry of activity in the office, and an acting commissioner of police showed up. Later that night I was told that they were beefing up my security even more."
Delhi police claimed that a plan to murder Mr Tejpal and his senior reporter, Aniruddha Bahal, had been foiled when the force's "special cell" arrested six known gangsters from the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, in the capital, and seized ammunition and arms, including AK-47s and Chinese-made pistols.
The six men appeared in court on Sunday and were remanded in custody. The Special Commissioner of Police (Intelligence), S Ramakrishnan, told reporters that the suspects "targeted Tarun Tejpal as that would have brought discredit to the government and even led to its collapse, which in turn could have led to further internal disturbances".
He claimed the "plan" was the work of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Pakistan's military intelligence.
- INDEPENDENT
