If judges are driven to deliver a verdict "what the nation wants", cops can easily fall prey to public pressure. CBI, "a caged parrot and His Master Voice" as called by Supreme Court is hardly expected to remain aloof from public pressure hyped up by the media trail.
A Fair and independent probe without any prejudice is the cornerstone of Indian criminal justice system or for that matter in any country. Media trials tend to hinder the rights of the accused, often securing them a conviction in the eye of the public much before a fair trial begins. It greatly interferes with the process of justice. In India The media has literally turned into a "janta ki adalat", trying cases and delivering verdicts of its own volition, undermining the administration of criminal justice.
The Aarushi Talwar murder case, the Nirbhaya rape case, 2G scam, the Sheena Bora murder case, the Kanhaiya Kumar incident and the latest Sushant Singh Rajput case, all these share a common denominator- frightening " media trial ". There is continuing concern in our judiciary regarding the media storms surrounding such cases. Just two months after actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found dead in his Mumbai apartment, his actress girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty is being subjected to a vicious hate campaign led by some of India's top high-profile journalists and social media trolls.
There are, broadly, three stages of a media trial.The first one explains the crime scene by a reporter followed by a scrutiny of facts by the presenter or anchor in the studio. At this stage, details of the FIR and forensics are not given as they are not made available to media personnel.
In the next stage media conducts a phantom trial' (as is in Rhea or any other case). A talk show or a debate, with panelists offering their versions of events and their personal opinions is arranged. The public, listening to these opinions, begins to build its own opinion, unaware of the actual investigation and evidence against the accused. Rhetorical questions put to the audience presume guilt on the part of the accused, and sway public opinion against him or her.
And finally the experts on the television show pronounce their judgment. This judgment is quickly adopted by the news presenter, who adds his own take". Its claimed as "voice of the nation". Television investigations are highly selective and unrepresentative, largely metro city-centered. These are focused mostly on the upper and middle class, the audiences affecting advertising revenues . Rhetorical questions put to the audience presume guilt on the part of the accused, and sway public opinion against him or her.
Media trials often create pressure on judges even and at times drive them to deliver a verdict of "what the nation wants".
A fundamental principle of criminal law in India is the presumption of innocence .The accused is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. but we find the public convicting the accused of a crime they may or may not have committed. Julio Ribeiro, a former Mumbai police commissioner and who led Punjab Police during Punjab insurgency periods was very upset with media trail of in the Sheena Bora case. He wrote to the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court seeking intervention in the ongoing media trial investigating the crime and revealing details of its own volition. He feared that this led to Indrani Mukerjea's conviction in the public's mind even before the trial.
Media trail may deny the accused a free and fair trial. In the Nithari case, a trial court convicted the accused Mohinder Pandher contrary to all evidence and despite a clean chit being given to him by the CBI, due to media and public influence. This verdict was later reversed by the Allahabad High Court.
The irony of the situation is that media trial put great amount pf pressure on witnesses and influences them. , Witnesses are the eyes and ears of justice. He brings observational testimony to the proceedings but consistency is required in recounting of events in order to determine what actually happened. Its, often. not there as media trial greatly contributes to the inconsistency of character witness. Studies show "eyewitness mis-identification is the single greatest cause of wrongful convictions nationwide, playing a role in more than 75% of convictions overturned ".
So media trail needed to be prevented. The Press Council of India has sent an advisory to TV channels on the coverage of the Sushant Singh Rajput case. It seeks to restrain the megalomaniac coverage in which the death of a film star has been turned into a circus bypassing all social and journalistic norms. Otherwise a day will come when judiciary may step in.
(Chander Sharma)
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