Netflix has given in to the diktat of the Karnataka High Court and removed the first episode of its true-crime series “Crime Stories: India Detectives”. The Karnataka High Court ordered Netflix to block the streaming of the controversial episode last week, following which Netflix has done the needful. The court passed the order after one Sridhar Rao petitioned the court requesting for its intervention. Sridhar Rao is a co-accused in the murder that was depicted in the first episode of Crime Stories: India Detectives.
For the uninitiated, Crime Stories: India Detectives is a Netflix Original documentary series that follows the Bengaluru police as it investigates four brutal murders in Bangalore city, during the course of four episodes. The true-crime series and police procedural is the first true-crime series Netflix has commissioned in India. The first episode, titled “A Murdered Mother” centres on a sensational case when a daughter murdered her mother. As per the case, she was helped by an accomplice in the murder, the aforementioned Sridhar Rao.
Rao has asserted in court that he is still under trial for the murder, and the visuals of the investigation in the episode can affect his defence. The streaming of the Crime Stories: India Detectives episode compromises his right to a free and fair trial in the case, as well as leaves him open to derision and ridicule from the public.
Following the court order, Netflix acted speedily to remove the offending episode from the series. The streaming giant’s action this time is in sharp contrast to its earlier attitude of standing up for its shows and countering similar orders with a petition of its own in court.
Readers may recall a similar case with one of Netflix’s documentary series last year. Just before Netflix’s ‘Bad Boy Billionaires: India’ was to stream, B Ramalinga Raju, founder of Satyam Computer Services, one of the disgraced tycoons featured in the docuseries, filed a case in a Hyderabad Civil Court, asking Netflix to restrain from streaming the series as it comprised his case which was still under trial. That time, Netflix had fought tooth and nail in court for the show to go ahead as planned.
This time Netflix has given up without so much as a squeak. The reason could be because it is a murder-accused who is at the crux of the matter and not a scam-accused like last time. If you still haven’t watched Crime Stories: India Detectives then the loss is yours. Netflix has already yanked off the episode in question.