The Madras High Court has warned the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the leak of an FIR in the Anna University sexual harassment case against targeting journalists under the guise of questioning.
Justice GK Ilanthirayan directed the SIT to ensure that journalists are not subjected to undue harassment while emphasizing that the media must also cooperate with the investigation.
The directive came in response to a petition from four Chennai-based journalists who alleged that the all-women SIT had repeatedly summoned them, seized some of their mobile phones, and asked unrelated personal questions, including details about their family members.
The journalists had accessed the FIR from the Tamil Nadu police website, where the victim’s identity had not been redacted. They argued that the failure to mask the victim’s details was a lapse on the police’s part, and their act of downloading the document did not constitute wrongdoing. They also stated that they had not publicly disseminated the sensitive information in their reporting.
The controversy stems from a case involving a roadside biryani vendor, Gnanasekaran, who was arrested on December 25 for allegedly assaulting an Anna University student on campus. The incident, reported on December 23, led to a complaint with both the police and the university’s Internal Complaints Committee.
Concern over the situation escalated when an advocate brought the matter before the court, raising alarms about law and order and the safety of students in the city. The court’s intervention has now put the focus on both the handling of sensitive information and the treatment of journalists covering the case.