BENGALURU: Expressing concern over police officers divulging details before the completion of an investigation, in turn affecting trials in cases and hearing of bail pleas, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the State Government to issue comprehensive directions to all police personnel to ensure that the nature of any investigation, identity, materials recovered, etc., are not revealed to the media before the investigation is completed.
A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj passed the order after hearing a PIL by H Nagabhushana Rao, who sought direction to police officers not to leak details to the media before an investigation is completed. Referring to the disclosure of identity of a complainant and accused, the court noted that the purpose will not be served if just a circular is issued to police officers, and unless disciplinary proceedings are initiated against those who would leak details or disclose identity.
Therefore, appropriate directions needs to be issued to officers in four weeks, the court said.Before this, the government advocate submitted a circular dated June 11, 2021, issued to officers to abide by service rules, and not to leak any details to the media before completing investigation, and it would be considered ‘disobedience’ if details are revealed. He also drew the court’s attention to similar circulars issued earlier.Meanwhile, the court orally observed that comprehensive directions should be issued to make every officer aware, and the code of conduct needs to be laid down before police officers, instead of issuing bits and pieces of circular.