The Bombay High Court on Friday reserved its order in the media trial of late actor Sushant Singh Rajput's death case. Two months ago, five ex-Director General of Police (DGP) from Maharashtra, two former commissioners of Mumbai Police, and a former Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief had moved a petition to the Bombay High Court, stating that a section of TV news channels have been making false propaganda through their biased reporting and have been trying to influence the course of the investigation. They also felt that the TV channels defamed the Mumbai Police too.
Petitioners have pointed out how actor Rhea Chakraborty was "painted a culprit" even before the judicial trial had started. The petitioners alleged that the video grabs of SSR's body were shown by a few channels, which is against the programming code.
In one of the hearing, the Bombay High Court slammed the Republic TV for its hashtag (#ArrestRheaNow). Questioning about the questions raised by the Republic TV on Arnab and running media campaign #ArrestRheaNow, the court said, "You posted story only basis post mortem? If you are so interested in unearthing the truth, you should have looked at the CRPC! Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You become the investigators and prosecutors, judges. What is the use of us then? Why are we here?"
The matter is being heard by a Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni. It is being said that the Bombay High Court is expected to formulate a guideline for the electronic media. However, the News Broadcaster Association (NBA), which looks after the self-regulation norms, also told the court not to accept the requests of the petitioners who sought directions for the formation of a statutory authority to regulate the electronic media.