Journalist's arrest: Doordarshan's 5-page bombshell

In an apparent fallout of the arrest of its Urdu news bulletin anchor-journalist Mohammad Ahmad Kazmi on the charge of abating the February 13 bomb blast on an Israeli embassy car in New Delhi, government-run Doordarshan is profiling professionals engaged for its news services to ascertain among others their religion, Pakistani connections and any criminal background, with a warning that their contract will be cancelled if they fail in the police verification.

The 5-page police verification form circulated to casual editors, news readers, editorial assistants and translators requires them to disclose if they were originally residents of Pakistan, their address in that country, date of migration to India, whether ever arrested, detained, prosecuted or fined by any court or debarred by any university or educational institution or disqualified by any public service commission/staff selection commission/institution.

They

also have to disclose their religion, whether they belong to Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe and whether any case was pending against them in any court.

The form is required to be filled up for verification of their antecedents by the concerned police authorities.

The form carries a warning that any false information or suppression of facts would mean automatic disqualification, rendering the person unfit for any engagement for DD News.

The professionals are also put on notice that they should immediately communicate to DD News in case they were detained, arrested, prosecuted, bound down, convicted anytime during service, with a warning that suppression of any such information would lead to termination of the contract.