Police at India polls after riot

Press, 4 November 1978, Page 9

Police at India polls after riot

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi' About 2000 para-military policemen have moved into the turbulent south Indian constituency where the former Prime Minister, Mrs Indira Gandhi, is seeking election to Parliament. The central Government’s decision to send in the men came after a riot in which a girl student was killed by a tear-gas shell and press cameramen were beaten up by state policemen. But the move threatened to intensify political bitterness over the nationally-rul-ing Janata Party’s all-out efforts to defeat Mrs Gandhi in Karnataka, a state which is ruled by her wing of the Congress Party.

Officials of her party accused central Government Ministers campaigning in the Chikmagalur constituency of preparing the ground for the postponement of voting scheduled for tomorrow. Both sides, however, refused requests ■ from local authorities to call off their remaining campaigning before the statutory close to allow tensions to ease. Janata Partv officials said a rally planned for their candidate, Mr Veerendra Patil, a former state Chief Minister, in Chikmagalur. would go ahead as arranged. Mrs Gandhi’s strenuous programme of addressing more than a dozen would go ahead. Mrs Gandhi, aged 60, in seeking to return to Parlia-

ment as national Opposition leader through the by-elec-tion, 20 months after her crushing defeat in a national General Election by Mr Morarji Desai’s Janata Party. ihe • Thief Election Commissioner (Mr S. L. Shakhder) recommended the use of the para-military force (known as the C.R.P.), after policemen clashed fiercely with a crowd at a Janata Party rally at Uj’ire, 70km from Chikmagalur. More than 80 people, many of them students, were injured as the police used tear-gas, bamboo staves, and fired shots in the air. All schools and colleges in the constituency were closed after a boycott of classes by students protesting against police brutality.

The police also used teargas and bamboo canes to disperse stone-throwing students in the nearby coastal city of Mangalore, where most colleges were also closed. Journalists injured included Jagdish Kapoor, an Indian cameraman filmin'’ for Visnews and the 8.8. C., who had a suspected bullet wound in the stomach; and! Jahangir Gazdar, a photo-i grapher for the American! “Time" magazine, wlp had five stitches in a head, wound. Twp local press photo-) graphers and a 8.8. C. correspondent. Mark Tully,: were also injured: and Law-.' rence Malkin, of “Time,” 11 was detained briefly by the!) police.