The additional public prosecutors and special public prosecutors of the state Prosecution department on Wednesday raised strong condemnations against “the defamatory and malicious statements” made against one additional public prosecutor, Senapati, Koshia Mao in the Facebook page of an online news portal on October 27.
In a press statement, the Prosecution department stated that the social media post in connection with an allegged sexual assault case of a minor girl of an area under Women Police Station, Bishnupur district had gone viral.
The prosecutors denounced the statement and alleged that it was a clear case of character assassination and an attempt to tarnish the public prosecutor’s image. The prosecutors expressed alarm at the “ploy being executed by a group of communal mindset persons.”
“The JAC Convenor and the journalist have no right to comment on a case for which the trial has not even started, and they are not authorised to carry out a media trial,” it stated.
The prosecutors have viewed the matter very seriously, and granting of bail is the discretion of the Court and the public prosecutor has nothing to do with it, it stated.
If aggrieved, they could have requested the special public prosecutor to pray for filing an application for cancellation of the bail, it added.
If further stated that speaking about the special public prosecutor in connection with the Lhukhosei Zou case, which was disposed last year on December 21, 2020, was uncalled for when the matter was about a POCSO Case.
The judgment and order was pronounced by the Judge and not by the public prosecutor, it further stated. The special public prosecutor had done her duty by putting up before the public prosecutor for sending up for appeal as it was a fit case for appeal by giving six grounds of appeal, it added.
The media post and the statement made by the journalist against the special public prosecutor had created doubt in the minds of the common people and it had affected the sentiments of the whole prosecution and giving such a statement against a prosecutor is an act of defaming the whole Prosecution and the Criminal Justice system, it continued.
Appealing to the state machinery and the law enforcing authorities to take immediate steps, the prosecutors warned the JAC convenor, Merajao Kamei and the executive editor of the online news portal Aribam Dhananjoy Sharma to clarify their statements at the earliest. The prosecutors would be compelled to take further course of action otherwise, it added.
