Details of Bhopal gas tragedy already in public domain, says HC, refuses to stay web series release
Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court has refused to stay the release of the web series "The Railway Men The Untold Story of Bhopal 1984", citing that the details of the event were already available in the public domain.
A vacation bench of Justice Arif Doctor on November 15 dismissed the petitions filed by two erstwhile employees of Union Carbide India Limited, who claimed that the series' depiction of the events leading to the tragedy and its cause may cause prejudice to them.
One of the petitioners was in charge of the MIC plant as production manager, and the other was in charge of the pesticides factory of the UCIL.
The petitioners Satya Prakash Choudhry and J Mukund were convicted in the case. They later filed appeals against the conviction, which is pending.
The high court, while refusing to stay the release of the series, noted that the petitioners have failed to make out a "very strong and compelling prima facie case that the web series contains defamatory, slanderous or libellous material".
"It cannot be disputed that the Bhopal gas tragedy was a most terrible and unfortunate event which made headlines and continued to remain in the news not only nationally but internationally for several years," the court said.
The gas leak and the events surrounding it have been discussed and examined over the years, and they form the basis of several documentaries, movies, books and so on, which are available in the public domain, it said.
Refusing any relief by way of injunction, the bench held that the web series was neither a documentary nor narration of facts but is simply stated to be inspired by true events, which are all in the public domain.
It further noted that the petitioners were seeking a stay on the release of the series solely on the grounds that it could potentially cause grave injustice to them.
It said that the petitioners were found guilty way back in 2010 and the contents of the trial and judgment are available in the public domain.
The court said the makers of the series have included a disclaimer before each episode stating that it was a work of fiction inspired by real events.
The petitioners, in their pleas, sought an injunction on the release of the series, citing certain inhibitions over the depiction of the cause of the tragedy.
The pleas claimed that they had no objection to the depiction of the role of those involved in the rescue work but had an issue with the portrayal of the cause/events leading up to the gas leak.
The depiction of events in the web series would possibly gravely prejudice the ongoing judicial proceedings against them, they said.
The makers of the series Yash Raj Films Private Limited said the pleas were baseless and misconceived and that the petitioners are not named, identified or blamed for the gas leak in the series, which is slated to release on November 18.
More than 3,000 people were killed, and lakhs were affected in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy that also caused environmental damage.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
