TOPSGRUP won't sack its rogue guards who thrashed press photojournalists in Mumbai on November 4, merely suspends them; Tata drags its feet on firing agency
Members of the Thane Shahar Patrakar Sangh yesterday at Court Naka, Thane, protest the merciless assault on three photojournalists, including mid-day’s Atul Kamble, by the security guards of Tata Sons on Friday. The lensmen were attacked outside Bombay House, the headquarters of Tata Group, while covering the arrival of ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry
The MRA Marg police on Saturday arrested Mayuresh Gurav and Ganesh Shinde, the two TOPSGRUP security personnel who on Friday assaulted three media personnel outside Tata headquarters, Bombay House. The lensmen were waiting at the Fort building to take photographs of former Tata chairman Cyrus Mistry expected to arrive at the venue for a meeting. It was while they were on the job that mid-day photographer Atul Kamble, Arijit Sen of Hindustan Times and S L Shanth Kumar of Times of India were assaulted by Gurav and Shinde.
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TOPSGRUP security guard Ganesh Shinde (extreme left) and Mayuresh Gurav (who has not been identified yet) were on Saturday arrested by the MRA Marg police and later released on bail
The two were produced before the Magistrate court on Saturday and remanded in judicial custody till November 11. However, they were granted bail of R10,000 each and released. Gurav and Shinde have been booked under various sections of the IPC — 141 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 149 (common intention), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) and 427 (damage of property) — along with sections of the Bombay Police Act.
A police officer said, "The accused immediately filed bail applications after they were sent to judicial custody. The court after hearing arguments, granted bail to both."
On Saturday, the Mumbai Press Club, Bombay News Photographers Association, Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh and the city’s television journalists petitioned Tata Sons to remove TOPS as its security agency, but failed to receive a commitment. They have decided to hold a protest march from Mumbai Press Club to Tata Bombay House on Tuesday.
In a statement issued to the press, Niraj Bijlani, CEO, TOPSGRUP India, said, "We as India's leading services group believe that our men, who are trained to handle such issues, should have shown more restraint and handled the matter in a much more professional manner, and thus, we have decided to suspend the three officers directly responsible for this avoidable situation." Bijlani clarified in an email that the 'security members concerned have been suspended till further details from the investigation' and not fired.
mid-day lensman Kamble, who suffered internal injuries and is still being treated at St George’s Hospital along with the Sen and Kumar, said during the chaos when Mistry arrived, one of the guards was accidentally hit in the face with a camera. “We explained that it was an accident, but the guards began abusing us and one hit a senior photographer. I went to help my colleague, but an overzealous guard – Ganesh Shinde – attacked me. Six to seven guards joined in,” he said.
As can be seen in the video that since having been uploaded on the mid-day website has gone viral, Kamble was thrashed by the security personnel who kicked him in the stomach, ribs, shoulder, back and chest. Kamble was saved when a few people pulled the men away.
Bijlani in his statement also said, “Our investigations have revealed that two of our security officers got injured by members of the press who were incessantly pushing and jostling outside Bombay House and this incident triggered the reaction.”
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