BeyondHeadlines News Desk
New Delhi: Shahina K K, who is facing charges of intimidating witnesses in the 2008 Bengaluru blast case, has been selected for the Chameli Devi Jain Award 2010 for outstanding woman media person. She is currently Thiruvananthapuram correspondent of Open magazine. Shahina was formerly writing for the Tehelka.
Shahina had met and interviewed Yoganand and Rafeeq, the witnesses in the 2008 Bengaluru blast case. The two witnesses had informed her that they were forced by the police to give their testimonies against PDP chairman Abdunnasir Maudany, which Shahina published in her report in Tehelka.
The police then booked Shahina and four others who helped her, accusing they threatened the witnesses to change their testimonies. The prosecution had sought more time to file a counter affidavit when Shahina’s anticipatory bail plea came up for hearing on March 7. The plea will now be heard on March 16.
Chameli Devi Jain Award jury consisted of broadcast personality Jai Chandiram, former Director General of Doordarshan and Secretary Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Bhaskar Ghosh and Dipankar Gupta, senior fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.
Nominations for the award, which will be presented on March 15, were received from all parts of the country. The awards are given away by the Media Foundation.