TV channel and a guest on their show booked for showing Walayar victims’ picture

Activist Boban Mattumantha and Media One journalists allege that they are being targeted by an associate of N Rajesh, former Child Welfare Committee chairperson, who had appeared for one of the accused in the case.
TV channel and a guest on their show booked for showing Walayar victims’ picture
TV channel and a guest on their show booked for showing Walayar victims’ picture
Written by:

Protests erupted after an activist and a few journalists from the Media One TV news channel were charged under POCSO by the Palakkad police. The journalists were booked for displaying a photo of the Walayar sisters during a news programme on the channel. The two minor girls were found dead at their house in 2017 and post-mortem reports had said that they were sexually assaulted before their death.

A case was filed against Media One Palakkad bureau reporter, cameraman, editor and producer of the news programme that displayed the picture, under sections 23 (2) of the POCSO act and 228(a) of the CRPC. However, surprisingly, the police also filed the same case against activist Boban Mattumantha who had appeared as a guest on the show and had nothing to do with the programme's production. The police filed a case against the activist for sharing the programme on his Facebook account.

Speaking to TNM, Boban said, “It was a news programme I participated in and I just shared it on my FB. I didn’t post their photographs on my own. Moreover, numerous media outlets, political leaders and online portals have shared pictures of the victims’ parents and their house, which could identify them, which is against the law. The case against Media One alone shows that the complainant has a personal grudge against us.”

Boban alleged that the complainant, advocate Sreenath S, was an associate of former Palakkad Child Welfare Committee chairperson N Rajesh who had appeared for one of the accused in the Walayar rape and had later been removed from his post after the media reported it.

“Media One was the first channel that reported about the CWC chairperson appearing for one of the accused. They had consistently followed the case even before the accused were acquitted by the court and before all other media took up the issue. That is why they were targeted,” Boban alleged.

A journalist from Media One also alleged that the complainant had threatened them earlier saying they would suffer for troubling Rajesh. “The complainant is an associate of Rajesh. He had threatened us. Now the sections against us are bailable. But Sreenath is trying to approach the court to file non-bailable charges,” he claimed. It is however to be noted here that Supreme Court has prohibited the media from revealing identities of the victims.

Boban pointed out that initially when the media reported the acquittal of all the accused in the case, everyone carried the pictures of the victims and their parents. “MP V Muraleedharan, BJP leader K Surendran and many other online platforms had carried the pictures of the girls’ parents. It was later that the media started withholding their identity,” he said.

He said he is being targeted as part of silencing activists in the case. There were protests by Palakkad Pouravali, a group of people representing different organisations, and the Youth Congress in the district on Friday against the police action.

It was on January 13, 2017 that the older sister, aged 13, was found hanging at their home. Less than two months later, on March 4 the younger sibling, aged 9, was also found hanging. On October 25 this year, three accused who were arrested in the rape of the two minor sisters were acquitted by a special POCSO court in Palakkad district. Another accused was acquitted on September 30 in an earlier judgement.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com