LAWS(BOM)-2021-1-10

NILESH NAVALAKHA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

Decided On January 18, 2021
Nilesh Navalakha Appellant
V/S
UNION OF INDIA Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Prelude :

(2.) Apart from the above, a couple of TV channels aired several programmes raising questions as to the manner of investigation by Mumbai Police and also as to why the actress had not been arrested in view of materials that such channels had gathered through "investigative journalism". One of them even went to the extent of obtaining opinion from the viewers on whether the actress should be arrested. One other channel flashed that the actor had been murdered. The persistent efforts of the channels for arrest of the actress did bear fruit in that although the CBI did not find reason to arrest her, she came to be arrested by the NCB. After a monthlong incarceration, this Court by its order dated October 7, 2020 granted the actress bail upon recording a finding that materials collected thus far by the NCB prima facie did not suggest that she had committed any offence under the NDPS Act.

(3.) Unfortunately, some of the TV channels in their programmes displayed headlines which, in effect, taunt the actor for committing suicide and seek to question as to whether he was into consumption of drugs. The insensitivity of such TV channels is writ large in that the headlines/questions were displayed/posed knowing fully well that the same would never be rebutted by the individual to whom it is directed.