Confessional statement to police not admissible: Delhi court

NEW DELHI: Hearing the plea of former JNU student Umar Khalid regarding a “media trial”, a Delhi court on Friday said that it was the duty of the media to inform and educate its readers or viewers of all relevant facts relating to a case. It stressed that self-regulation was the best mode of regulation.
Khalid had stated that several news reports had mentioned a “confessional statement” that he had allegedly made to the police but he had never signed it.He added that a supplementary chargesheet filed by the police was leaked even before the court had taken cognisance of it.
“The adversarial media reports, painting me not only as an accused, but almost guilty, have continued. It is causing me deep distress and clearly affecting my right to a fair trial. It is continuing even after you being informed and is a deliberate design to malign me,” Khalid has said at an earlier hearing.
Chief metropolitan magistrate Dinesh Kumar noted that a confessional statement made to the police was not admissible as evidence in law. “The news reports haveonly highlighted that accused Umar Khalid had confessed his involvement... However, none of the news items has made a clarification to readers/viewers that such a statement, even if actually made, could not be used by the prosecution as evidence,” the court added.
Referring to a news report that portrayed the Delhi riots as “anti-Hindu”, the order stated, “In fact, this does not appear to be the case as all communities felt the consequences of the riots.” The court observed that such a news report might convey to the public at large that Khalid had, in fact, confessed or admitted to his role in the riots.
The court, therefore, underscored: “A reporter should have such basic knowledge of law as readers/viewers consider news items as true without verifying the facts.” It further noted that the general public might not be aware of the law and, therefore, it was the duty of the media to inform and educate readers and viewers of all relevant facts and circumstances of a news report published or shown on a news channel.
Observing that the press was the “fourth estate” in a democratic society, the order also stressed that they were regarded as one of the sentinels guarding the existence of society.
“It is the duty of the judicial system to decide a case on merits after trial. I hope that reporters use self-regulation techniques while publishing or showing a news item related to a case pending investigation or trial so that no prejudice is caused to any accused or any other party,” said the court.