Republic TV’s plea not maintainable: Maha police to SC

NEW DELHI: Taking a cue from UP government to file an affidavit even before issuance of notice on the Hathras gangrape case, Maharashtra police on Wednesday filed its response in the Supreme Court to a petition filed by Republic TV questioning the probe into the TRP scam, which is scheduled to be taken up for hearing on Thursday.
Police in its preliminary response to the petition filed by ARG Outlier Media said any probe into an alleged crime by the investigating agency could not be cited as violation of right to freedom of speech as sought to be done by the petitioner to “sidestep, thwart and prevent
any investigation by the competent agency into alleged fudging of TRP ratings”.
Requesting the SC not to interfere in the ongoing investigation into the FIR, the state police said several TV channels which have been summoned in connection with the alleged crime had been cooperating with the probe and had not raised any grievance with regard to the investigation. It said the petitioner’s demand for transfer of probe to CBI was misconceived.
The police accused Republic TV’s main anchor of “contacting various witnesses who have been summoned by the police and discussing and/or debating the contents of their statements on the TV programmes”. It said, “Petitioners are directly interfering and intimidating the witnesses by issuing news releases. The FIR is being converted into a media spectacle. Such media trial is antithetical to the process of free and fair investigation as also administration of justice.”