HC to hear plea to restrain 'media trial' of Sushil Kumar

New Delhi: Three days after he was arrested and sent to 6-days' police custody for his alleged role in the murder of fellow wrestler Sagar Dhankar inside the Chhatrasal Stadium here, a PIL has been moved before the Delhi High Court opposing the "media trial" that is being carried out by certain media networks regarding the international wrestler Sushil Kumar's arrest and case investigation and praying a "balanced and non prejudicial" reportage of news.

The plea, where Kumar's mother was earlier a case party, also alleges that the Delhi Police is deliberately leaking information to the media despite categorising it as a sensitive case.

However, in a bizarre turn of events, the defence lawyers and the petitioner are on different pages with regard to the plea which has led to the petitioner finally removing the mother as respondent to the case. Kumar's lawyer has claimed that the petitioner has not taken the consent of the accused's mother, who has been made a party to the petition. "We have received instructions that Sushil's mother has not agreed to be a party to this plea and hence we will oppose it on these grounds before court tomorrow," advocate Satvik Misra told Millennium Post.

Meanwhile, the petitioner, advocate Shrikant Prasad has claimed that he has an audio recording of Kumar's mother, Kamla, where she has told him that Kumar was dedicated towards wrestling and "devoted himself to the country. "I have the consent of the mother in filing this petition...she is under depression due to all that has happened to her son," Prasad told this newspaper.

Advocate Prasad has now stated that he has removed Kumar's mother as a petitioner since advocate Misra reportedly called him up saying that he doesn't have the mother's permission. "Why would I risk my profession by filing such a plea?...I have an audio recording to prove the same...but still I have removed her as a petitioner and now I have moved the same alone before court," advocate Misra added. The audio link has been attached with the petition.

Meanwhile the plea itself states that Kumar has been a victim of media trial and that his career and personal life has been lost due to the Delhi Police "continuously providing each and every information to the media".

The petition states that the Delhi Police has categorised this as a sensitive case but are themselves leaking each and every information to media networks and "media is running these on every channel with their distorted means with a sole motive of gaining TRP". The plea is to be taken up today.

Meanwhile, a video alleged to be of the brawl that led to the murder was released in the public domain, which purportedly showed Kumar beating the victim, Sagar, with a stick in Chatrasal.