Bangalore, December 5: The Karnataka High Court granted a week's time to the police to file their objections to the bail plea of Naveen Soorinje, a reporter with Kasturi Newz 24, who was arrested in connection with the July 28 homestay attack in Mangalore.
Justice K.N. Keshavanarayana passed the order and adjourned further hearing on Soorinje's petition to next week.
Mr. Soorinje was arraigned as accused number 44 in the charge sheet filed by the Mangalore Rural Police on September 20, on the criminal case registered in connection with the attack.
Apart from being charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, related to unlawful assembly, committing criminal conspiracy along with those that attacked the youngsters at the homestay and house trespass, Mr. Soorinje has been charged under Section 3 and 4 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, for circulating videos containing indecent visuals of girls, who were victims of the attack.
It was alleged in the charge sheet that Mr. Soorinje had “provoked the assailants to lift the face of the victims to enable recording of them in their camera”.
However, in his petition, Mr. Soorinje claimed that he was a “whistleblower” and a “star witness” of the entire case of the prosecution as it was due to his intervention that the victims were saved, and culprits were identified and brought to justice.
“As an afterthought and in order to screen the offenders, the investigating agency deliberately roped him in the case as an accused, which is per se abuse of power of law,” Mr. Soorinje contended, claiming that there is no iota of evidence against him.
It has been stated in the petition that Mr. Soorinje went to the spot on getting information over the phone from his news source that a group belonging to a Hindu organisation was proceeding to the homestay on a “moral police” mission.
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