The Bombay High Court on Monday, in an order issued in the Jyotirmoy Dey murder case, passed remarks on the police and the public prosecutors who talked to the media in detail, advising them not to disclose minute details about investigations to the press.
“Frequent issuance of statements unnecessarily giving minute details of the investigation will adversely affect the investigation and, in the long-run, damage the prosecution case. Such disclosures are not in public interest. A balance must be struck. This applies to the investigating agencies and also to the public prosecutors or police prosecutors, some of whom are seen giving detailed interviews to the press even when the cases are sub judice,” the Division Bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and Ranjit More observed.
“We hope and trust that this issue will be examined by the police at the highest level,” the order stated.
The Division Bench made it clear that the observations were not connected to the J Dey case. Some of the petitioners had argued before the court that the police were leaking information about the investigation to the media and many times they were contradictory.
The Advocate General had told the court that only official persons were talking to the media and issuing press statements as part of the police's responsibility to let the people know about the investigation.
