The Bombay High Court on Thursday urged the media and said it expects the media to exercise restraint before publishing or reporting on details of the investigation, and report in such a manner that it does not hamper the investigation of actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death.
A division bench of Justices A A Sayed and S P Tavade said the media should report in such a manner that it does not hamper the investigation.
The court was hearing two petitions which claimed a "media trial" was going on in the case of Rajput's death and sought for it to be stopped.
One of the petitions was filed by eight retired IPS officers, who have served Mumbai police in various senior positions and solved many sensitive cases in the city, to stop “unfair, malicious and false media campaign against Mumbai police in the matter.”
The petitioners include M N Singh, P S Pasricha, K Subramanyam, D N Jadhav, D Shivanandan, Sanjeev Dayal, S C Mathur and K P Raghuvanshi –all Director General-level officers at the time of their retirement. This is the first that such top officers have come together to defend a force they served with distinction.
The bench said before hearing the matter further, it would like to first see what the Union government and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing the case, have to say in response to the pleas.
The high court posted the petitions for further hearing on September 10.
The plea filed by the retired IPS officers said a the media should avoid publishing and circulating stories that are false, derogatory and scandalous comments, social media posts, news stories, etc. “which may jeopardise the reputation of the Mumbai police and may cause the public to lose faith in the system and in police administration or hinder the cause of administration of justice.”
It further said section of TV channels are trying to influence the course of investigation being carried out by central agencies like the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), and is running a false propaganda against the Mumbai Police.