Mumbai: As if Republic TV’s cup of problems was not full, now, the Bombay High Court says that part of the coverage by Arnab Goswami’s channel and Times Now in the Sushant Singh Rajput case was “prima facie contemptuous” of the Mumbai Police. The court was hearing a plea in the matter on Monday. The court said it would not take “any action as of now” but made it clear that media trial during investigation in a case “does impact the investigation”, NDTV reported.
One of the petitions is filed by eight former Indian Police Service officers who objected to the negative portrayal of the Mumbai Police by a section of the media. Another petition pointed out that a section of the media was running a parallel trial in the case and asked to court to put a stop to it, the report added.
The court said a “media trial” violates programme code under the Cable TV Network Regulation Act and asked the electronic media to follow PCI guidelines until new guidelines are framed.