The Delhi High Court on Wednesday restrained news channels from publishing, printing or displaying the contents of the charge sheet in the Shraddha Walkar murder case. Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar also directed the Centre to ensure the same is maintained by news channels till the disposal of the petition filed by Delhi Police.
The order was passed on a plea by the Delhi Police seeking to restrain media houses from publishing, printing and disseminating confidential information contained in the charge sheet and other such materials collected during the course of the investigation in the case.
The retrain order came in view of a trial court order directing Aaj Tak news channel to not telecast the contents of the narco analysis or psychological assessment of Aaftab Poonawala, the accused.
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Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad submitted to the high court that Aaj Tak has got access to narco analysis video of accused Aaftab Poonawala and the channel was restrained by the trial court from showing any such content.
However, he said the order needs to be passed against all other channels also as the video might have been shared with others and if telecasted, it would prejudice the case.
The high court listed the matter for further hearing on August 3.
Poonawala was the live-in partner of Shraddha Walkar, accused of strangling her and chopping her body into pieces in Mehrauli on May 18 last year.
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The Delhi Police had filed the 6,629-page charge sheet in the case on January 24.
