Asianet News Files Plea Before Kerala High Court Alleging Police Harassment

Malayalam News Channel, Asianet News, has filed a plea before the Kerala High Court alleging harassment by the Police for having launched a campaign against drug abuse in the State, particularly amongst children, and the publication of an interview with one such victim of drug abuse. 

It is the case of the petitioners that despite the aforementioned news item having been published with due care and caution, without disclosing the identity of the victim or her relatives, the channel was continuously receiving notices under Sections 160(1) and 90 of Cr.P.C. directing them to produce their recordings and original video tapes of the news that was telecasted several months ago.

It is averred by the petitioners that visual media is not bound to keep such record of content for a period exceeding 90 days, as per policy guidelines issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. 

The plea alleges that the repeated notices issued to the petitioners regarding the news published months back displays the harassment meted out to them, and that the said harassment has caused severe mental agony and insult to the petitioners and its employees. 

When the matter came up before the Single Judge Bench of Justice N. Nagaresh today, the Court observed in this regard that, "they are conducting the investigation, and as part of that they have asked to produce the documents. They have to search, right?"

The Court further noted that only notices had been issued to the petitioners as per the pleadings, and the same could not be said to be harassment as such. 

The counsels thus responded that there was a procedure that had to be followed for conducting the search. "Let them conduct the investigation but they cannot harass us," the Counsels argued. 

The petitioners alleged that police was coming to its office under the guise of investigation and harassing the staff. The counsels submitted that investigation could not be used as a tool to harass the petitioners. 

"Under the guise of investigation, they cannot harass us. They are simply coming to the office, taking the mobile from the staff, and taking the staff as such to the police station and keeping them in the police station from morning till evening," the Counsels for the petitioners submitted. 

On finding that the police keeping the staff in the police station had not been mentioned in the plea, the Court directed the petitioners to file an affidavit to that effect.

The Court stated, "Let us see on what basis they are asking for documents. Let the GP get instructions. Why do you want to prevent an investigation?"

The incident came to light after a group of nearly 30 activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students wing of the ruling party, violently and forcefully trespassed into its office at Kochi and intimidated the staff on March 3, 2023. Asianet had thus approached the High Court seeking police protection. The Court had disposed the same directing the police to provide effective protection to the petitioner, in the event of violence.

Thereafter, the mother of the 12 year old victim had also approached the High Court seeking CBI investigation into the issue pertaining to the luring of school children into drug consumption, and using them for drug trafficking and other crimes. The said petition was filed alleging unfair investigation by the police in the case. The said case is currently pending before the Single Judge Bench of Justice K. Babu. 

The present plea has been filed alleging that the incident had obtained political colours and the police was acting in accordance with their political masters. It thus seeks the issuance of a writ of mandamus or others directing the police not to harass the petitioners and its employees unnecessarily. 

The Court has directed the Government Pleader to get instructions on the matter. The case has been posted for further consideration on April 10, 2023. 

The present plea has been moved through Advocates V.V. Nandagopal Nambiar, Victor George V.M., Preeja P. Vijayan, Smitha Ezhupunna, and Chithra Johnson. 

Case Title: Asianet News & Ors. v. State Police Chief & Ors.