Sting op case: SC notice to Centre, Maha govt on scribe's plea

The Supreme Court today sought the Centre's response on a plea of a woman scribe challenging the invocation of stringent Official Secrets Act against her for carrying out a sting operation to highlight the 'buddy system' in the Army.
"We need to examine the issue," a bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abdul Nazeer said while issuing notice to the Maharashtra government on the plea of Delhi-based journalist Poonam Agarwal who has also sought a court-monitored probe into the death of a 33-year-old jawan inside the camp in Nasik.
Agarwal, who was represented by senior lawyer Gopal Subramanium, has sought issuance of guidelines to prevent "abuse" of the provisions of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 (OSA), claiming they were invoked in order to prevent the media and citizens to find out the truth.

The scribe, working with a news portal, has pleaded for issuance of suitable directions giving a "controlling and strict interpretation" to the provisions of the Act to prevent its abuse and bring them in line with the scheme of the Constitution.
She had entered the camp and carried out the sting operation on the alleged abuse of the 'buddy (sahayak) system' in the army by video-graphing Roy Mathew, a jawan from Kerala who was found dead last month.
Under this system, Army jawans are used for personal and household activities by their superiors.

Nasik police lodged an FIR against Agarwal and retired army official Deep Chand under IPC provisions and Sections 3 (spying) and 7 (interfering with officers of police or members of the armed forces of the Union) of the OSA.

In her plea, the journalist has said that the issue related to "manipulation" of evidence, "hushing up" of criminal offences, the cause of "journalistic freedom" and the "right to freedom of speech and expression".
"The immediate provocation for invoking of the draconian provisions under the OSA against the petitioners is to scuttle and prevent a fair investigation into the unnatural death of one of the jawans who figured in the broadcast clip aired on February 24, 2017 with all faces blurred...
"His highly decomposed body was found on March 2, 2017 hanging for four days in an abandoned barracks nearly 200 metres from his living quarters in Deolali camp," it said.

The plea said that Mathew went missing after he made a last call to his wife on February 25, 2017, and two days before his body was found, his reporting officer called the family to dissuade them from lodging a missing persons report.
The plea sought a direction to the Centre to conduct an inquiry into the "misuse" of the 'buddy system' in the army.
Deep Chand, who brought the journalist to the army area and got the sting operation done, should be protected from physical harm, harassment and retributive action, it said.
Poonam had allegedly entered Heig Lines in the Deolali camp without the permission of the authorities and filmed the premises, besides carrying out a sting operation on Mathew and other jawans on February 24, in which she is said to have asked leading questions.

Mathew was found hanging from the ceiling of a room on March 2.
The police had also recovered a diary from his barracks with some scribblings in his mother tongue fearing possible action from his superiors, the plea said.
A case of accidental death was then registered by Nashik Police under section 174 (police to inquire and report on suicide) of the CrPC.
Mathew went missing on February 25 after he purportedly figured in the expose by the portal with the video showing soldiers walking dogs of senior army officials or taking their children to school.