Imphal, September 30: The Churachandpur Reporters' Forum (CRF), an association of press reporters in Churachandpur, today issued a statement strongly condemning the 'undeserved high handedness and callous behaviour' of the police personnel at the SP/ CCpur Office here during a press conference that never happened.

According to reporters who witnessed the incident, there was a call from the SP office in the morning intimating them of a press conference to be held immediately on the arrival of DGP, AK Parashar IPS, who was on his first ever visit to Churachandpur.

All reporters, including the electronic media rushed there on getting the message.

There were also two senior editors among them.

After a short wait, the assembled pressmen were ushered into the SP Office to take photos of the police officials posing with the arms seized near Pangjang village yesterday.

The photo-shoot done, the scribes waiting for a 'conference' were told rudely, without any reasons, 'to get out'.

At the verandah, these press persons were told by the guard officers to go as "they were no longer needed", press persons said.

Terming the incident as one of the rarest of rare cases in the modern world, the Forum called an emergency meeting afterwards where the police behavior was condemned in the strongest term.

The presence of two senior editors in their midst made the police action all the more condemnable, the release said.

The CRF also questioned why a press meet was called in the first place if there was nothing to discuss except a photo-shoot.

It called the incident a classic case of press persons being "used-and-thrown".

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