Anna University sexual assault case: Madras High Court asks SIT not to harass journalists

Chennai: Restraining the all-women Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the sexual assault of a student at Anna University from harassing journalists under the pretext of questioning them, the Madras High Court on Tuesday asked the scribes to cooperate with the probe. 

 Justice GK Ilanthirayan passed the order after four journalists moved the court alleging harassment at the hands of the SIT, which is believed to have intriguing questions to the scribe while seeking to know how they accessed the FIR of the case, whose leak led to the identity of the survivor being revealed in public domain. 

The journalists’ counsel contended that the questions asked by the SIT were unrelated to the investigation into the case, besides complaining that their phones were confiscated. The SIT had in total summoned at least 12 journalists to appear before it, besides confiscating smartphones of the four scribes who showed themselves before the women IPS officers. 

The “leak” of the “poorly-drafted” FIR, which many felt looked like blaming the survivor, led to a major row with the Madras High Court coming down heavily on the Chennai Police for their “oversight” and asking the SIT to probe this aspect as well, along with the sexual assault. 

All journalists who were summoned by the police work for television channels, newspapers, and weekly magazines. In total, 14 persons accessed the FIR out of which about eight are journalists, the sources said, adding that the summons are against the law as the scribes downloaded the document as part of their work. 

A couple of journalists and news organisations did post the FIR on social media without masking the identity of the survivor, inviting all-round criticism. 

Police said the journalists were summoned under Sections 179 and 94 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) on the suspicion that they might have knowledge of the case.