The Supreme Court bench of Justices AS Bopanna and MM Sundresh reiterated that journalists should not take the law into their own hands while highlighting the case of a journalist denied anticipatory bail by the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The journalist had attempted to expose an illegal child trafficking racket but was accused of seeking illegal gratification to suppress the news.
The bench lifted the interim protection from arrest granted earlier to the journalist and other accused journalists involved in the case. The Court emphasized that being a journalist did not give anyone the license to disregard the law.
During the hearing, the accused argued that the allegations against them, involving asking for a bribe to suppress a news report, were weak. However, the Court decided to discontinue the interim protection, stating that there was no reason to continue it, especially considering the involvement of the accused in other cases.
The Supreme Court had provided interim relief to the accused journalists last year when individual petitions were filed, including one by Sadaqat Pathan from Dainik Bhaskar. The Court noted that the investigation in the main case against them had been completed.
The accused journalists had moved to the Supreme Court after the Madhya Pradesh High Court denied their applications for anticipatory bail. The High Court had commented that oblique acts performed under the guise of journalism cannot be protected.
The case arose when Dainik Bhaskar reported on a child trafficking case in Madhya Pradesh. The police then disclosed that they were also investigating the role of local journalists in the matter. A complaint alleged that local journalists had blackmailed and demanded ransom from one of the accused under the threat of publishing a false report on child trafficking. The accused-complainant stated that he was forced to pay the journalists a substantial sum.
The accused journalists denied the allegations, but the suspension of Sadaqat Pathan from Dainik Bhaskar was reported amid the ongoing investigation.
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