Briefing newsmen on the day's deliberation of the council here, its chairman P B Sawant said this followed complaints from the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the Indian Journalist Union (IJU).

Sawant said the daily had tried to communalise the Enforcement Directorate's action against Ashok Jain, chairman of Bennett, Coleman and Company, the publisher of the daily. It had carried two stories side by side in bold headings on its ``human rights watch'' column on January 28 last that ``the Digambar Jain community and the Tamil community have condemned the directorate's action against him''.

The daily had distorted the statements of Rajinder Sachar, R N Pal, and Rajender Puri -- three eminent personalities whovoiced their opinion on the directorate's action against Jain, Sawant said.

The newspaper also continued its tirade against the enforcement agencies by constantly criticising the officials and exerting pressure. At one stage, it had also suggested transfer of some of the officials, Sawant added.

Sawant said the publication was ordered to publish the copy of the PCI's order in the daily.

On the directorate's action against a senior journalist like Jain, he said he had not received any complaint on human rights violation from Jain. If there were complaints he would have looked into them, he added.

Sawant said the PCI wrote a letter to Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel and issued a notice to the chief secretary following complaints from five journalists from Hassan that they were beaten up by the police during an agitation on the Cauvery issue at Mysore recently.

The journalists had alleged that despite proving their identity and instructions from higher authorities, they were detained in the policestation and beaten up by the police. After receiving a reply from the government, the PCI would proceed further in the matter.