Local court restrains film on murder at Gurugram school

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has restrained over-the-top (OTT) platform Netflix and Channel News Asia (CNA) from broadcasting ‘A Big Little Murder’, a documentary based on the alleged murder of a seven yearold boy in 2017 at his school in Gurugram.

“The defendants are restrained from streaming, broadcasting, telecasting etc the documentary titled ‘A big Little Murder’ or any of its abridged versions,” Justice Jayant Nath said in an August 10 order.

The court said that a trust that runs the private school and moved to the high court challenging the airing of the documentary, have prima facie made out a case for the restraint.

The judge, however, said the documentary could be streamed after deleting all references to the school in question and deleting the portion which shows a visual of the school building.

On September 8, 2017, the seven-year-old boy, a student of Class 1, was found dead in the school’s washroom with his throat slit. While initially, the Gurugram police arrested a school bus conductor, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) later arrested a Class 11 student for the alleged murder.

In its order, the court said the screening of the documentary was in violation of a January 8, 2018, Gurugram district court order that directed that the public at large including the media to use imaginary names given while referring to the persons or facts of the case.

The trust contended that the documentary was released on August 6 on Netflix, where the name of the school and its building was shown in complete violation of the order passed by the Gurugram court.

The petitioner also said that in another case, a co-ordinate bench on January 22 stayed the release of a book regarding the incident.

The trial in the alleged murder case is pending adjudication at a Gurugram court.

ON SEPTEMBER 8, 2017, A 7-YR-OLD BOY WAS FOUND DEAD IN THE SCHOOL’S WASHROOM