Punjab and Haryana High Court stays order of arrest against TV anchor Deepak Chaurasia in POCSO case

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday last week stayed the order of arrest issued by a special court in Gurugram against journalist and news-anchor Deepak Chaurasia .Chaurasia is accused of airing ‘morphed, edited and obscene’ videos of a 10-year-old girl and her family and linking it to the sexual assault case against godman Asaram Bapu.Single-judge Justice Vivek Puri directed Chaurasia to be present in the trial court on or before November 22 and to move an application for bail/recall of warrant of arrest."It is further directed that the arrest of the petitioner shall remain stayed and the coercive steps as ordered in the impugned order against the petitioner shall remain in abeyance till the disposal of the bail application and for a period of 7 days thereafter in the event, the application is dismissed," the Court observed..The case relates to a first information report (FIR) registered on the complaint of the child’s relative in December 2013. News channels News24, India News and News Nation were accused of airing the video. According to reports, former News 24 managing editor Ajit Anjum, anchor Chitra Tripathi and Chaurasia are among eight people charge-sheeted in the case.It is alleged that the video aired on these news channels partially revealed the faces of the girl child, complainant’s wife, and some other women.The special court had objected to Chaurasia's absence during the trial. In the order pronounced on October 28, the special court had noted that though an application for exemption from personal appearance had been filed stating that he had to be rushed to hospital because of low blood sugar level but the same was not supported by any medical certificate or by an affidavit.Judge Chauhan had further noted that even on September 23, a similar application was moved and it appeared that Chaurasia was intentionally avoiding his presence.Hence, the special court had ordered that issued a warrant of arrest against the journalist.Chaurasia then moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the same. .During the course of hearing before the High Court, the counsel for Chaurasia argued that, on account of health issues, he was admitted to Ashoka hospital and thereby could not appear in the trial court on the date fixed..In light of this the bench noted,"The discharge summary indicates that the petitioner was admitted in hospital on 28.10.2022 i.e. the date of hearing in the learned trial Court. The confinement of the petitioner in the hospital has resulted in non-appearance in the learned trial Court."Senior Advocate Sumeet Goel along with Advocates Samir Rathaur, AK Ranolia and Shivani Kaushik represented petitioner..[Read Order]