HC upholds good work of two sting reporters

Sep 25, 2010 - Age Correspondent |

New Delhi

The message was loud and clear from the Delhi high court, which defended a sting operation as a means to expose corruption and quashed criminal proceedings against two senior journalists of a web portal for conducting a sting operation to expose a cash-for-query scam involving 11 members of Parliament in 2005.

In a major reprieve for the two journalists — Anirudh Bahal and Suhasini Raj — of the web portal CobraPost.com, Justice S.N. Dhingra said, “I consider that in order to expose corruption at higher levels, and to show to what extent the state managers are corrupt, acting as agents provocateurs does not amount to committing a crime.”
Setting aside the trial court order of July 6, 2009, Justice Dhingra said corruption has taken “deep roots”, adding that acting as “agents provocateurs” to expose high-level graft does not amount to abetting this crime. “Charging the petitioners (Bahal and Raj) under the Prevention of Corruption Act would amount to discouraging the people of this country from performing their duties enjoined upon them by the Constitution as well as the CrPC,” the court observed.

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