Anna University sexual assault FIR leak case: Madras High Court restrains SIT from harassing journalists

Madras High Court restrains SIT from harassing journalists in Anna University FIR leak case, directs cooperation in investigation.

The Madras High Court on Tuesday (February 4, 2025) restrained an all-woman Special Investigation Team (SIT) from harassing journalists in connection with the Anna University sexual assault First Information Report (FIR) leak case and directed the latter too to cooperate with the investigation.

Justice G.K. Ilanthiraiyan passed the orders on a batch of writ petitions filed by the Chennai Press Club and individual journalists complaining about them having been summoned multiple times by the SIT and being asked irrelevant questions such as their family history and so on.

After hearing a battery of advocates including K. Balu and M. Jothimanian, representing the journalists, the judge wanted to know whether the SIT had questioned the author of the FIR and also those responsible for not having blocked it on the portal before summoning the journalists.

Mr. Balu told the court the SIT had even forcibly taken away the mobile phone of his journalist client and issued a receipt only days after the seizure. He said, there was absolutely no need to harass the journalists when they had not disclosed the identity of the sexual assault victim.

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The lawyer told the court an official of National Informatics Centre (NIC) had conceded the FIR did not get blocked on the CCTNS portal, for some time, due to a technical glitch following the shift from the Indian Penal Code regime to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita regime.

The journalists had only downloaded the FIR but did not disclose the identity of the victim in any way, he asserted.