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A two-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising of Justices Soumen Sen and Bibek Chauduri passed an order through video - conferencing in a plea filed by the ETV reporter Avishek Dutta Roy. The petitioner had made a news report about some police personnel who were collecting bribe from a truck loaded with sand. In this report, he had also stated that while he was chasing the truck, a vehicle owned by the police department was being driven in a rash and negligent manner. This led to an accident and caused the death of a person. In his report, the petitioner also released some photographs. Through this report, he revealed the bribery among the police officials and alleged illegal sand mining.
This same report, however, became the prima facie reason for lodging a complaint dated 2nd June 2020 against the petitioner. The petitioner was booked under Sections 143/186/188/283/269/270/271/353/504/506/109 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act. In this backdrop, the petitioner filed a plea for bail under Section 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure ( anticipatory bail). The bench while hearing the plea perused the materials on record and heard the contentions of both the parties and concluded that this FIR was an attempt to suppress the voice of the petitioner. The court further observed that it is the fundamental right of the press to publish any news, which may not be palatable to the administration. The court also stated that incidents of police taking bribes from vehicles are being frequently reported and we cannot deny that it's happening.
In its further observations, the court issued directions to the Superintendent of Police of the concerned district to initiate an inquiry regarding registration of the FIR against the reporter and investigate about the collection of money by the police personnel. The court also granted anticipatory bail to the petitioner and protected the rights of a press reporter.
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