Azamgarh hotel faces police action for hosting French scribes

The Azamgarh district administration lodged a police complaint against the owner of a hotel for letting out rooms to two foreign journalists who interviewed the families of two suspected terrorists, officials said, according to Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

According to reports, two journalists representing the news channel France 24 went to Azamgarh's Sanjarpur village, about 270 km from this Uttar Pradesh capital, to interview family members of the two terror suspects Atif and Sajid, who were killed in a shootout with police in New Delhi last month.

The journalists, Lise Richard Thomas and Capucine Clair, checked in at the Hotel Gangotri in Azamgarh Oct 1 and left it Oct 4.

Defending the move, Azamgarh superintendent of police Ramit Sharma said: "We have not taken any action against any journalist, foreign or Indian, and the cases have been slapped against the hotel owner under section 7-14 of the Foreigners Act as he did not give us prior information about (hosting) the foreign journalists."

Besides interviewing the family members of the slain terror suspects, the French journalists also went to some madrassas and priests of mosques and interviewed locals.

 
 
Date Posted: 6 October 2008 Last Modified: 6 October 2008