India: Karnataka HC Stops Airing of Crime Stories Citing Prejudice to Free Trial

The Karnataka High Court has prohibited the airing of a controversial episode from a crime story series which was to be aired on Netflix, a popular OTT Platform. The Karnataka High Court issued an interim order directing Netflix Entertainment Services India LLP to prevent the content of Episode No. 1 of Series 1 of the documentary "Crime Stories. India Detective" titled "A Murdered Mother" from being streamed, broadcasted, telecasted, or otherwise made available on Netflix. The programme is available for viewing on the Over the Top (OTT) platform and is available to all registered users, according to the court. Because the video is available for viewing, a free and fair trial is tainted, and the court granted a restraining order and served notice on the respondents as a result. The scenes depicted confession statements and trial procedure that does not fall in line with the actual trial as per Criminal Procedure for free and fair trial. This might put individuals under a prejudice that this is how it works while the actual reality is different.