New Delhi: Uma Khurana - who faced humiliation for nearly two months following a fake sting - was on let off by a court due to insufficient evidence.
"Since there is not sufficient evidence to chargesheet her in this case, I discharge her from this case," Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Alok Aggarwal was quoted as saying by agencies.
Aggarwal said his order was based on the chargesheet filed by the Delhi Police, which virtually gave clean chit to Khurana.
The court added the decision to let off Khurana - who was not only manhandled by the protesting mob but was terminated from her services after August 30, 2007 - was pronounced by the court following the police chargesheet stating there was no "incriminating" evidence against her.
This after Delhi Police on Tuesday submitted a chargesheet in Tis Hazari court saying no evidence has been found against Khurana, against whom the sting operation was done by private news channel Live India.
The chargesheet said now it was up to the court to decide whether it wants to summon Khurana as an accused on the technical grounds of the Immoral Trafficking Act. As per the Act, handing over someone with the knowledge that she may be used for trafficking is a crime.
On September 20, an inter-ministerial panel formed to look into the issue found the channel guilty of violating programme code under Cable TV Network Act.
The channel went off air from midnight of September 20.
Earlier, the channel received a show cause notice on the same charges. The channel had submitted a detailed reply to the notice stating that the reporter had misled the channel regarding the sting operation.
Comments
0 comment