By IANS
Hyderabad : The police have filed a charge sheet Monday following the attack on Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, allegedly by members of an Islamic party here last August.
Two legislators of the Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) party and their followers allegedly attacked Nasreen at the Hyderabad Press Club on Aug 9, 2007 when she was attending a book release function.
In the charge sheet filed here at a city court, the police stated that MIM legislators and workers barged into the press club, damaged the conference hall and attacked Nasreen and the club manager in the presence of several writers and journalists.
The organisers of the function and journalists saved Nasreen before police arrived on the scene to escort her to the airport. While another writer was injured while trying to save her, Nasreen escaped unhurt.
The police had arrested legislators Muqtada Afsar Khan and Moazzam Khan and four other men on the same day. They were released on bail a few hours later. Two more party workers were held on Dec 8, while two other suspects are still at large.
The police booked the legislators and their supporters on charges of rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, damaging property, house-trespass, assault, criminal intimidation and unlawful assembly.
Conviction could lead to disqualification of the legislators under the Representation of the People Act.
The police have examined and recorded the statements of 32 witnesses, including some organisers of the book release function and some journalists who attended it.
The police produced video footage of various news channels and programme organisers, pictures clicked by press photographers and newspaper clippings as evidence against the suspects.
Nasreen has been staying at an undisclosed location in New Delhi since she was forced to leave Kolkata after violent protests by another Muslim group in November last year.