"Why only this case and not other murder cases": Delhi High Court on Aaj Tak plea to publish confidential material in Shraddha Walkar murder

The Delhi High Court Wednesday questioned news channel Aaj Tak/TV Today Network on why it wants to telecast materials like narco-analysis test and chargesheet related to Shraddha Walkar murder case. .Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar took exception to the channel's inclination to highlight the Walkar murder case alone. "There are more heinous cases than this… There are 20 murders all over India daily. What is so special about this case? Was the Nirbhaya case played on TV channels? Why are you choosing this particular case,” the Bench asked.The judge also asked whether it would similarly broadcast the recent Atiq Ahmed murder case and asked the counsel for the channel to respond to the bench's queries on the next date of hearing on August 3. “Will you display [material related to] Atiq Ahmed’s murder also? Uska bhi jawab le ke aayiyega (come up with an answer to this question as well.. I will see you on August 3,” the judge said..The Bench made the remarks while hearing an application moved by TV Today seeking vacation of an earlier order of April 19 restraining media channels from displaying or telecasting psychological assessment, voice layered test, narco analysis of accused Aaftab Poonawalla. The Court had also restrained channels from publishing the confidential material in the chargesheet. The Court today asked the counsel appearing for TV Today whether videos related to the investigation can be played on TV during the pendency of the trial.“You can’t take the chargesheet in a case and affix them on walls. Some line needs to drawn about how much these public documents [in a criminal trial] can be displayed on TV,” the Court said.The counsel for India Today told the Court that the injunction order effectively violates their fundamental right.“This is your fundamental right? To display the matter under sub-judice on TV? How many criminal cases pending before courts are being displayed on TV,” the Bench asked.The counsel said that the material they want to publish are public documents and that he is only asking the Court to give an early date so that the matter can be heard. The counsel further said that the case has attained a special status in the eyes of the public and that he will answer all the questions posed by the Bench.Justice Bhatnagar, however, said that such materials are there in every case but they are not shown on TV.It added that no early date will be given in the application and it will be heard on the date already fixed in the main matter which is August 3, 2023.The Court further asked the counsel to come up with answers to all the questions posed to him..The Bench then proceeded to issue notice on India Today’s application.Meanwhile, the counsel appearing for the accused Poonawalla as well as Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) Amit Prasad opposed the plea.They said that they will file their responses by the next date. .Poonawalla and Walkar had entered into a live-in relationship after meeting on mobile dating app, Bumble. They were initially based out of Mumbai before shifting to Delhi last year.According to police, on May 18 last year, after a quarrel between the couple in a rented flat at Mehrauli, Poonawalla strangulated Walkar, chopped her body into 35 pieces, stored it in a fridge and later dumped the pieces in different parts of the city over the next 18 days.