The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued a notice to the Madhya Pradesh government on the alleged torture of two journalists by police and life threats
allegedly issued by the sand mafia for reporting on illegal sand mining activities in Bhind district.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Satish Chandra Sharma, however, refused
to pass any stay order against the possible arrest of two journalists.

The bench took the view that it was easy to level allegations against senior IPS officers, but they should have been made respondents when such insinuations were made against the district superintendent of police.

The bench said since the cases registered against the two journalists were not known, the court could not be expected to pass any blanket order restraining the police from taking “any coercive action” as sought by counsel Warisha Farasat, appearing for the two scribes — Shashikant Jatav and Amarsingh Chouhan.

“Suppose you (scribes) commit a murder, can we grant a non-coercive order? We don’t know what is the crime registered against you,” the bench told the counsel during the brief hearing.

The bench also wondered whether any pre-emptive order could be granted against the journalists, supposing that they had committed a crime against the nation.

The apex court, however, hastened to add that if there was a genuine threat to their lives, “we will come to your rescue”.