(S.Ravi Seshu)
Notorious criminal Nayeemuddin, who was shot dead by police on August 8, maintained close relations with media persons in Nalgonda, Mahabubnagar, Ranga Reddy, Hyderabad and Nizamabad districts, it is learnt.
According to Namaste Telangana, the newspaper being funded by the ruling party, as many as 69 journalists, including 16 seniors in both the Telugu states, figured in the list. Surprisingly, four leaders of journalists’ unions are also got benefits from the dreaded criminal.
Police revealed to the newspaper, based on the inputs gathered from Nayeem’s diary, he used to send costly gifts to the 16 journalists in the form of ‘covers’ during festivals. The other journalists reportedly received money from him on monthly basis. Most of them are from Bhongir, where he studied before taking to a new avatar.
Nayeem allegedly funded a TV channel with the help of a Mirylaguda-based journalist, who rose to become the CEO of the channel from the stringer of a popular Telugu news channel. The highly ambitious journalist was introduced to Nayeem by a TRS leader and they decided to get into media business. “The leader belonging to the same caste of the journalist played a vital role in impressing upon the renegade to fund the TV channel. The journalist started a campaign for the channel but now he is not seen anywhere,” a Nalgonda-based journalist said adding that efforts were on to launch it soon.
A victim of Nayeem told Telugu360 that the journalist under scanner shown keen interest in learning about the activities of human rights activists. “There has been a talk that this guy had the blessings of Nayeem. I too got suspicion that something is fishy.”
He also made some pertinent points on the role of media. “Many journalists carried the fear of Nayeem in the last two decades. That is why there were no news stories about the criminal or his empire,” he said and ridiculed the plethora of stories being carried by all newspapers and aired by news channels ‘fearlessly’ after his death. “Almost all senior journalists know about Nayeem’s activities. Everyone knows who killed former Maoists and civil rights activists but we witnessed only matter-of-fact reporting. Had media discharged its duty well, Nayeem should have been nipped in the bud. It is a great disservice done by the media to the society,” a former journalist worked in an English newspaper in Nalgonda commented.
It is learnt that Nayeem used reporters to get information related to his opponents rather than involving them in his crimes. Another senior journalist from Khammam said that the reporters allegedly figured in Nayeem’s diary are not regular employees of mainstream newspapers or channels. “Most of them must be stringers working for papers and channels in districts. As we all know, these part-time employees are involved in land dealings. Nayeem should have came in contact with them only through land purchases or sales,” he said.
Meanwhile, a couple of news channels removed their part-time employees in Bhongiri on coming to know that Nayeem diary contains the names of scores of journalists.
