Kochi: Kerala High Court’s single bench of Justice P Gopinath criticised the media for the way the case was reported against Dileep, which alleged that he threatened investigation officials probing the 2017 Actress Attack Case. While granting an anticipatory bail plea to Malayalam Actor Dileep on Monday, the court said that a vibrant and independent press is essential to democracy, but freedom of speech and expression cannot be a license for persons ‘armed with half baked facts’ and ‘little or no knowledge of judiciary’ to ‘abuse’ the justice delivery system.
While granting anticipatory bail to the actor and the others who are accused of threatening the officers investigating the 2017 actress assault case and allegedly conspiring to eliminate them, the court said that mainstream television media and social media have commented upon the way the proceedings were conducted in the instant case. ‘Observations made in court during the course of hearing have been dissected and made subject matter of intense discussion’, Justice Gopinath P observed.
The court further said- ‘The existence of a vibrant, independent and free press is no doubt essential to democracy. The constitutional courts in this country have been zealous to protect the freedom of speech and expression but this cannot be a license for persons armed with half baked facts with little or no knowledge of how the judiciary functions and little or no knowledge of the fundamental legal principles that govern it, abuse the justice delivery system’.
Read more: Kerala High Court grants anticipatory bail to actor Dileep and the other accused
The court further found that there is no material to suggest that an act or illegal omission had occurred for the accused in this case to be charged with an offence of abetment of that act or omission. ‘Prima facie, that at present, there is no material to suggest that the accused had committed the offence of criminal conspiracy. Regarding the non-cooperation with the investigation, I am of the opinion that even if bail is granted to the accused it is always open to the prosecution to move this court for cancellation of bail or for the arrest of the accused’, the court said. ‘Investigation can be properly conducted without the custody of the accused making it clear that even while on anticipatory bail the ‘deemed custody’ or ‘limited custody’ will be with the prosecution for the purposes of any recovery etc’, the court added.
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