Rakul Preet Singh approached the Delhi High Court seeking a provisional address for the Center.
New Delhi:
Actor Rakul Preet Singh approached the Delhi High Court on Saturday seeking an interim address for the Center, the Press Council of India and the Association of News Broadcasters to ensure that the media does not broadcast any programs or publish any article linking her to Rhea Chakraborty’s drug case. .
The actress sought an interim order against the media until such time as the Mumbai Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) completes the investigation and submits an appropriate report to the competent court.
The request, filed under a pending petition, is likely to go through a hearing next week.
On September 17, the high court had requested the Center’s response to Ms. Singh’s request to prevent media reports from linking her to Ms. Chakraborty’s drug case and had said that the leaks to the media should be investigated as “someone’s reputation is totally destroyed by this.”
In the request, she said she was in Hyderabad for a movie shoot and was shocked on the night of September 23 to see media reports that NCB had summoned her to appear before him in Mumbai the next morning at relation to the drug case.
However, he had not received any subpoenas either at his Hyderabad address or at the Mumbai address and remained in Hyderabad.
The statement claimed that the media began publishing false news to the effect that the actress who was in Hyderabad had allegedly arrived in Mumbai on the evening of September 23 for the NCB investigation.
He said he received the summons on the morning of September 24 via WhatsApp, after which he appeared before the NCB the next day to assist in the investigation and delivered his written statement on the facts that were known to him.
The request claimed that the media continued to maliciously spread and publish false news against him.
On September 17, the high court had also asked all authorities to treat his request as representation and to make a decision on it expeditiously before the next hearing date on October 15.
He had also expressed the hope that “the media will show restraint in their reporting and abide by cable television regulations, the programming code, and various statutory and self-regulatory guidelines, while making any reports regarding the petitioner.” .
The actress claimed that on September 19, she delivered a written request for a personal audience to each of the respondents, but with the exception of the Association of News Broadcasters (NBA), none of them responded.
He said the Association said its representation will be considered virtually on September 24, but that it was not resumed, after which it filed a new application in court.
The actress, in her petition, has claimed that Ms Chakraborty had already retracted the statement in which she was allegedly named and yet media reports connected her to the drug case.
The NCB investigation has stemmed from the investigation into the death case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
She has claimed that, based on unfounded accusations, defamatory programs were being carried out in the media against her, causing her irreparable damages.
The petition had also alleged that the ministry, PCI and NBA “have not fulfilled their statutory functions of ensuring compliance with their own directives, which has resulted in the flagrant violation of the petitioner’s fundamental rights.”
.
