The Supreme Court on Friday once again refused to entertain a writ petition from Asaram Bapu, now lodged in a jail in Gujarat, seeking to restrain the media from reporting on the allegations of sexual assault made against him.
Earlier on October 21, the court declined to restrain both print and visual media from carrying news reports about Asaram’s case. But it gave him the liberty to file a fresh petition if any adverse report about him was published or telecast.
The 75-year-old self-styled godman now moved the court to stop two TV channels from broadcasting reports, saying they were projecting him as a “Dracula who drank children’s blood.”
But Chief Justice P. Sathasivam told senior counsel Vikas Singh: “We cannot ask the media not to report the information they get from police or other sources. If some inmate says something or an investigation officer talks to the media, how can we stop them? The media is reporting what they say. You have other civil or criminal remedies.”
The Bench, which included Justices Ranjana Desai and Ranjan Gogoi, dismissed the petition as withdrawn.
