Punjab & Haryana HC Sets Aside Non-Bailable Warrant Issued Against News Anchor Syed Sohail In POCSO Case

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside the order of a trial court in Gurugram that cancelled the bail and issued a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) of arrest against TV News Anchors and Journalist Mohammad Sohail (working with Republic Bharat) in connection with a 2013 POCSO case for his non-appearance in court on one day. A bench of Justice Nidhi Gupta directed him to surrender before the trial Court/Duty Magistrate on or before December 12, 2024, and move an application for regular bail. The court also directed that the trial court/duty magistrate consider and dispose of his bail plea on the same day by accepting fresh bail/surety bonds to be furnished by the petitioner to its satisfaction. The Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) of arrest was issued against Sohail after he sought exemption from personal appearance, citing that he was travelling to Kanpur for election-related duties and could not return on the same day. However, his plea was rejected by the Gurugram court, and the NBW was issued. Before the High Court, Sohail's counsel argued that he had been attending all court hearings, and since on the day the NBW was issued, he was travelling to Kanpur and could not attend the court, the issuance of the NBW was unjustified under these circumstances. It was further prayed that the impugned order be set aside and that Sohail be allowed to surrender before the trial court. The complainant's counsel, though, opposed the petitioner's request but admitted that Sohail had regularly appeared before the trial court. Considering these facts, the High Court set aside the impugned order and directed Sohail to surrender before the trial court and apply for bail. It may be noted that eight media professionals are facing this case under POCSO Act. They are: Ajit Anjum, Anchor Sohail, and reporter Sunil Dutt, who worked with News24, editor-in-chief Deepak Chaurasia, anchors Chitra Tripathi and Rashid Hashmi, Jodhpur reporter Lalit Singh Badgurjar, and producer Abhinav Raj worked for India News. They all have been charged under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 469 and 471 (forgery) IPC; sections 67B (abusing children online) and 67 (publishing or transmitting sexually explicit content) IT Act; and sections 23 (disclosure of identity of a child by the media) and 13C (indecent or obscene representation of a child) of the POCSO Act. All eight persons have been charged with hatching a criminal conspiracy whereby agreeing to prepare a forged video of a minor girl victim aged about 10 years and her family by showing the victim and her family in an indecent manner and telecasting the same on news channels, thereby harming the reputation of victim and her family. Further, they have also been charged for forging and editing the electronic record (the video clip), intending that the document or record forged shall harm the reputation of the victim and her family or knowing that it is likely to be used for that purpose and telecast the same on the respective channels and represented the girl child in an indecent and obscene manner by telecasting the forged/edited video clip on news channels.

Punjab & Haryana HC Sets Aside Non-Bailable Warrant Issued Against News Anchor Syed Sohail In POCSO Case

Sparsh Upadhyay

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