Delhi High Court to hear plea on media trial in Sushil Kumar case on May 28

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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday (May 27) agreed to examine a plea seeking to restrain the media from sensationalizing Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar`s trial in connection with the murder of a 23-year-old wrestler.

The plea was mentioned before a bench comprising Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh. The court agreed to hear the matter on May 28.

The plea moved by a law student claimed that Kumar`s career and reputation was tarnished by the media reporting against him in connection with the Chhatrasal Stadium brawl that led to the death of a wrestler.

According to the plea, the excessive publicity of the suspect in the media before the trial in a court of law, either incriminates a fair trial or results in characterizing the suspect as the one who has certainly committed the crime.

The plea added that this amounts to undue interference with the "administration of justice", and sought proceedings against the media for contempt of court.

A Delhi court on May 23, sent wrestler and Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, arrested in connection with his alleged involvement in the death of a wrestler at the city`s Chhatrasal Stadium, to six days police custody.

According to the police, Kumar and his associates allegedly assaulted fellow wrestler Sagar Dhankar and his two friends Sonu and Amit Kumar at the stadium on May 4 night. Dhankar succumbed to his injuries later.

Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, representing Delhi Police, submitted that some CCTV footage, the alleged weapon used for committing the offences and also the mobile phones are yet to be recovered by the police as he sought 12 days custody.

The magistrate had noted that no one is above law and law treats everyone equally and our Constitution guarantees the right to life and liberty to all persons subject to exceptions. The court added the allegations against the accused persons are grave in nature.

The Delhi Police have filed an FIR under Sections 302 (murder), 308 (culpable homicide), 365 (kidnapping), 325 (causing grievous hurt), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

They have also included Sections 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) of IPC and various sections under the Arms Act.