Headlines
Gag order on Memon funeral; media blacks out telecast
Mumbai, July 30
Not willing to take any
chances, police here on Thursday issued a gag order to the media barring
it from photographing and videographing the funeral procession and the
last rites of hanged convict Yakub Memon.
The 13-hour gag order
was issued by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) Sanjay Barkund
from 11 a.m. till midnight of Thursday.
Following this, all TV channels voluntarily dissuaded from telecasting the funeral procession and the last rites.
Certain
TV channels even flashed a notice, saying they would not telecast the
funeral as Memon was a traitor and they would not make him a "hero" by
publicizing his last rites.
The police order restraining the
media said reports were received of "every likelihood of breach of peace
and disturbance of public tranquillity and also there is a grave danger
to human life, health and safety and injury to public property on that
account".
The March 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts convict was executed
at 6.35 a.m. in Nagpur on Thursday. His body was handed over to his
family and flown to Mumbai by an air ambulance for the funeral rites.