With unsubstantiated leaks and speculative theories — often attributed to police officials — relating to investigations in high-profile criminal cases, like the Malegaon bomb blast, flooding the media, the Centre has asked all the state governments to instruct its investigating agencies to exercise restraint and guard against “premature” disclosure of case details.In a recent letter to the state DGPs, the Home Ministry has said that the growing tendency of police officials to rush to share premature and often-contradictory information with the media was not just inappropriate but also against several rulings of the higher judiciary.“It is needless to say that such premature disclosures can compromise the investigation and subsequent prosecution of the cases, besides having implicit possibilities of contradictions being aired by different agencies and agencies of different states,” the letter sent by Home Secretary Madhukar Gupta said. “Besides, there has been sharp criticism of such tendencies from all sections from the point of view that such disclosures tend to be projected in the media, and otherwise, as a pronouncement of guilt of the people who may have been apprehended. I need hardly emphasise the inappropriateness of this in the wider social context, except to say that even the court of higher judiciary have made serious critical observations in this regard,” he said.The Centre’s letter comes in the wake of a glut of reports in the print and electronic media relating to the recent investigations into the Malegoan bomb blast. Most of these reports have been attributed to the investigating team and many a time the reported facts have been found to be contradictory, leading to an embarrassment for the police as well as the Government.The wisdom of the police officials in disclosing case information to the media had come under sharp focus in the Arushi murder case and the Batla House encounter. There are petitions pending in both the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Government to prevent police officials from disclosing details of criminal investigations and restraining media houses from publishing or airing them.In his letter to the DGPs, the Home Secretary said that such leaks reflected adversely on the professionalism of the concerned officers or agencies notwithstanding the good work that may have been done by them. He asked them to take appropriate action so that such possibilities are avoided in future.The Home Ministry has circulated a detailed guideline to be followed by all investigating agencies in case of bomb blasts. The guidelines are about the action that is required to be taken by the investigating teams and the local administration in the immediate aftermath of a blast and during the course of subsequent investigations. These guidelines make it clear that only authentic investigation result such as the nature of explosives or the triggering mechanism should be disclosed to the media.
