New Delhi: Personnel of the Delhi police took control of wire service UNI’s office in New Delhi on Friday (March 20) following a high court judgment to that effect, with the news agency alleging that policepersons roughed up and verbally abused its staffers.Videos released by UNI and The Statesman newspaper, whose eponymous publisher acquired the news agency last year, show police personnel pushing and arguing with employees at its 9, Rafi Marg office on Friday.Stating that the action raises “serious concerns over press freedom”, UNI said that numerous staffers were not allowed to retrieve their belongings, and alleged that some of its female employees were roughed up and that “two lawyers and Delhi police personnel abused several individuals”.“Some Delhi police personnel were intoxicated while on duty,” UNI also alleged.No prior notice was given and when its staffers asked for time to collect their belongings and for the company’s management to arrive, police personnel “forcibly dragged and pushed some employees, including women, from their seats and threw them out of the newsroom”, UNI said in a story on its website, adding to call the manner of the eviction “beyond comprehension”.Deputy commissioner of police Sachin Sharma speaking to PTI denied wrongdoing and said the action was conducted in accordance with the law.Earlier on Friday, the Delhi high court upheld the Union government’s March 2023 decision to cancel the allocation of land at 9, Rafi Marg to UNI on the grounds that it did not fulfil its obligations under the allotment.A single-judge bench comprising Justice Sachin Datta ordered officials of the Union government – which controls the Delhi police – to “immediately take possession of the land/property in question and ensure that the same is utilised in accordance with law”.The facts of the matter, the bench said, “reveal a situation where valuable public land has effectively been held hostage by a licensee who has failed to perform its obligations for decades”.UNI was first allotted the land at 9, Rafi Marg in December 1979 on the condition that it build a composite office complex for itself and a few other media bodies within two years.But such a building never came up and the allotment as well as UNI’s co-allottees changed over the years, with the statutory Press Council of India being made a co-allottee in 2000 to share the yet-to-be-built composite office complex with the news agency.According to the high court, the Press Council “appears to have remained in only notional possession, whereas the actual physical possession of the entire parcel of land continued to remain” with UNI.After UNI challenged the March 2023 cancellation of the June 2000 allotment in the Delhi high court, the latter had ordered a stay in April 2023.Journalists’ bodies reactThe Press Club of India (PCI) expressed deep shock at the manhandling of journalists.In a statement, it said, “PCI condemns in the strongest possible term such highhandedness unleashed on the journalists including women workers. Several journalists have stated that they were physically removed by Delhi Police and “CRPF personnel” from their workplace by use of force and not even allowed to pick up their personal belongings. The right to work is a constitutional right.”PCI noted that it stood with the affected journalists and maintained that authorities should have shown restraint particularly when the journalists at work had informed them that the management was yet to convey to them to vacate the premises after the court order, which came just hours before the police action was launched on the working journalists.“PCI urges the authorities to take prompt action against whoever was responsible for such misconduct as it would help instil confidence within the journalist fraternity that right to work of the press is an important part of a democracy,” it said.The Delhi Union of Journalists also expressed outrage.“When the surprised journalists asked for time to inform their management, many of them were manhandled. Women journalists too were physically pushed out as video footage reveals. No time was given for people to retrieve their personal papers and belongings. We severely condemn this arbitrary action. UNI, the second oldest newsagency in the country, has been severely mismanaged over the past decades. It was the responsibility of the current management to inform employees of the High Court Order that came earlier in the day, anticipate the eviction and protect employees from harm. Regrettably, they did not do so,” the DUJ said in a press release.The body noted that the Union government has dealt a death blow to the news agency by cancelling the lease of the land on which the office is.“In the past the Government tried to change the lease conditions and bring in other media players, promising them a share in a new building to be constructed on the plot. Earlier UNI managements challenged these orders in court. Meanwhile, the agency struggled financially, especially after the government withdrew subscriptions for Prasar Bharati and other government bodies. UNI employees suffered the consequences, with years of delayed salaries and other dues. Years of struggle in and outside courts by employees, including retirees and those who had left UNI, the agency was declared bankrupt by the National Company Law Tribunal. It was then taken over by The Statesman who paid a small percentage of their dues to pay employees.” The DUJ called upon The Statesman management to fulfil its responsibilities, continue to run the agency and pay the journalists and other employees their full dues, and expressed full solidarity with the struggling UNI employees.Note: This report has been updated with the reactions of journalists’ bodies.