The Allahabad High Court, in the infamous religious conversion racket case, reserved its order on a plea filed by the accused who sought for restriction on the media from misreporting and making premature statements w.r.t. to their case.
In the instant case, the accused, who himself got converted to Islam from Hindu faith, had been accused of converting more than one thousand persons in the State of Uttar Pradesh and alleged to have got many of them married to Muslims. The accused was alleged to have targeted the vulnerable sections like deaf, mute, women, children, students etc.
The charges had been framed under Sections 120B, 153A, 153B, 295A, 420, 541(1) of Indian Penal Code and Sections 3 and 5 of UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religious Act, 2021.
He had been arrested by the Uttar Pradesh police Anti-Terror Squad on the charges of mass conversion of people to Islam religion, by inducing them though means such as marriage, job, money, and mental pressure.
Regarding this case, the accused filed an instant plea before the Allahabad HC and challenged leakage of sensitive and controversial information about him and sought for prohibition of such premature statements and untrue reports from being published in any form of media.
The counsel on behalf of petitioner-accused submitted that the UP police failed to confine the distribution of information to the essential facts and rather disclosed facts which were unconfirmed, judgemental, and speculative, which subsequently caused irreparable damage to petitioner’s liberty and his chance to prove his innocence.
The bench stated that according to Justice Chandrachud’s judgment, the press has the right to report. As of now, the order has been reserved by the bench.
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