Two Chennai scribes held for assaulting cops

Two journalists working with an English daily were arrested by the Commercial Street police on charges of assaulting two traffic cops on duty early Sunday morning.

The arrested are Chanaksha, 22, a native of Assam and Srishti, 21, of Bihar, both residents of Gottigere on Bannerghatta Road. They told the police that they were working as sports journalists in the Chennai bureau of the daily. They are staying together in Bengaluru.

They are accused of assaulting Shivajinagar traffic police station sub-inspector Mallikarjunaiah and constable Basavaraj. Mallikarjunaiah suffered a fracture on his shoulder in the attack, while Basavaraj suffered injuries on his shoulder.

The policemen were on duty on Cubbon Road around 1 am. The suspects were returning home in a car after a weekend party at a bar and restaurant. Basavaraj stopped the car and tried to subject them to an alcometer test. Chanaksha objected to this and claimed that he was not drunk. Basavaraj took the alcometer till his mouth and a tiff followed, the police said.

Mallikarjunaiah told them that it was mandatory to conduct the test and that he would let them go if they were not found to be drunk. Chanaksha slapped Mallikarjunaiah and pushed him down, while Srishti abused the constable in a filthy language. They also attacked Basavaraj in a similar fashion, police said.

On being alerted, the Commercial Street police rushed to the spot and took the two into custody. The two were taken to the police station and a case was registered against them based on a complaint by Mallikarjunaiah. They have been booked under Section 332 of the IPC (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace). They have been remanded in judicial custody, police said.