Report Sushant Singh Rajput death case as per investigation: High Court to Media

The Bombay high court (HC) has asked news media to exercise restraint in its reportage of the investigation into Sushant Singh Rajput’s death. The court has also asked representatives of news channels to be present for the hearing of two petitions filed by former police officers and activists. The petitioners have alleged television news channels are maligning Mumbai Police and prejudicing the general public. The case will be heard next on September 10.

A division bench comprising of Justice AA Sayed and Justice SP Tavade was hearing two petitions. In the first, filed by activists Nilesh Navlakha, Mahibub Shaikh and Subhash Chander Chaba, advocate Devadatt Kamat that the petition had a limited prayer for directing various media houses on their reportage of the the Rajput case.

Kamat said some news channels had overstepped the guidelines laid down in Cable Television Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, and were conducting a media trial by exposing names and details of those named in the case. He submitted that that some had also gone on to name police officials and pass judgements on the accused before the investigation has been completed.

Advocates Dr Milind Sathe and Chetan Kapadia informed the bench that their petition was on similar lines and had been filed by police officers, including former director generals of police (DGP) PS Pasricha, K Subramaniam, D Shivanandan, Sanjeev Dayal, Satish Chandra Mathur; former commissioners of Mumbai Police Mahesh N Singh, Dhananjay N Jadhav; and former anti-terrorism squad (ATS) chief K P Raghuvanshi.

Dr Sathe submitted that the media coverage of the Rajput case was irresponsible, aimed to prejudice the general public and also maligned the image of Mumbai Police. He urged the court to restrain the media and also direct the government and media regulators to lay down guidelines for the coverage of pending investigations, like the one probing Rajput’s death.

Additional solicitor general Anil Singh appearing for the Union of India asked for time to respond and submitted that as the petitions involved the media, media houses should be allowed to defend their actions before the court passes any order.

After hearing the submissions, the bench passed a short order in which it observed, “The media should practice restraint and report the case as per the investigation.” The bench also directed the media channels named in the petition of the activists to be present for the hearing on September 10 and asked the News Broadcasters Association to file their reply before the next hearing.

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