Karnataka HC order forces Netflix to drop one of four episodes of Crime Stories: India Detectives

The much-hyped Crime Stories: India Detectives is now only three episodes long. On Friday, the Karnataka High Court ordered that the episode titled A Murdered Mother, which follows the murder of a 54-year-old at the hand of her daughter and her alleged boyfriend, be removed from streaming, which Netflix has complied.

Sridhar Rao, the co-accused in the murder case, moved the court citing harassment and prejudice to him, as the episode contained visuals of the police probe against him and the accused, the daughter of the victim. He claimed that the episode had visuals from an interview during the investigation, which would prejudice his right to a free and fair trial.

According to reports, Justice BM Shyam Prasad in his order wrote, “The content being available for viewing, the petitioner would be put to harassment and prejudice. In consideration of these submissions, the respondents, subject to further orders, are called upon to block streaming, broadcasting, telecasting or otherwise making available the content of the Episode No.1 of the Series 1 of the documentary Crime Stories. India Detective titled A Murdered Mother on Netflix.”

In fact, speaking exclusively to OTTplay earlier, Karnataka DGP and IG of Police Praveen Sood had said, “All the cases that are a part of this series are currently in a court of law, with the police having done its due diligence. Normally, cases are out in the public domain only when they become the property of the courts. Nothing has been revealed during the investigation. In fact, the footage remained sealed until such time that the investigations were closed at our end.” He added that the streaming service had also followed all legal formalities in terms of obtaining consent of every party involved in the filming of the docu-series.