Court refuses to summon scribes in 2008 blasts case

AHMEDABAD: A special court hearing the 2008 serial blasts case has turned down a demand from the accused persons that journalists and editors of four newspapers should be summoned so that they could throw light on the arrests and remand proceedings that had taken place in August 2008.
In rejecting the request to summon journalists, designated judge A R Patel said that the information published in dailies is not an absolute truth and the testimony of journalists cannot prove court records wrong.
After bomb blasts rocked the city of Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, and 56 persons lost their lives, the city police made first arrests on August 15 and remand proceedings ensued thereafter. Some accused wanted to examine journalists and editors for the news reports on arrests and remand proceedings. The defence lawyers argued that it is necessary that the journalists remain present in court to tell the court from where they had sourced information regarding arrest of the accused persons and their subsequent remand.
Declining the request, the court said that the case records have all documents related to arrest and remand procedure including magistrate’s orders related to all accused persons in all 35 complaints pertaining to the blasts – 20 registered in Ahmedabad and 15 in Surat. The question arises as to whether the arrest memos, remand applications tendered in court by the investigators and the magistrate’s orders should be accepted as true or the versions of the journalists and editors when they appear before the court.
The judge further observed, “In my opinion, the information published in newspapers is published by journalists and editors and it is not like an absolute truth for which they should be summoned before the court. By placing editions (of the dailies) in court, the arrest memos, remand applications and magistrate’s orders lying with the court records are not going to be proved false.” The court further asserted that if both the documents are compared, court records should be believed as correct. Therefore, there is no point in summoning the journalists.