Madras High Court Bars Media from Airing Explicit Videos in Veeramani POCSO Probe

In a Friday hearing, the Madras High Court instructed media organisations to refrain from publishing or broadcasting explicit videos tied to the POCSO case against granite baron R Veeramani, emphasizing the need to safeguard child victims. Justice V Lakshminarayanan cautioned that early exposure could have a chilling effect on other potential victims and stressed that the court, not the media, should determine guilt. The plea, filed by the NGO Tulir, sought a John Doe order to stop further circulation of the material, and the bench asked the respondents to submit counter-affidavits by September 30.

The court also ordered the all-woman Special Investigation Team to issue weekly press releases on investigative progress. Police have approached Google and Meta to remove already leaked clips and are probing the source of the leak, which they say did not originate from law enforcement.