Aishwarya Rathore-
Published on: August 08, 2021, at 12:41 IST
A plea has been filed in Delhi High Court seeking registration of First Information Report (FIR) and appropriate legal action against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly exposing the identity of a 9-year-old Dalit girl, who was raped and killed in a Delhi crematorium.
The plea states, “These photos would reveal the identity of the victim and are consequently, in violation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.”
According to the petitioner, there is a legal obligation under Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and Section 23(2) of the POCSO Act, 2012, not to reveal the identity of the victim or his family members.
Brief Facts of the Case:
When the 9-year-old girl had gone to get water from a cooler at a crematorium in Delhi’s Purana Nangal area, the crematorium’s priest and three others committed the brutal act.
Gandhi had subsequently visited the parents of the girl and photos of him consoling them were tweeted from his official Twitter handle. The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights took cognizance of the tweets and ordered Twitter to delete Gandhi’s post as it contained sensitive information about the rape victim’s family members.
The plea stated that Rahul Gandhi’s tweet attracts punishment of a minimum of six months and a maximum of one year under Section 23(2) of the POCSO Act.
It has also been stated that the aforesaid act is an attempt to take political mileage out of the unfortunate incident by posting the picture of the victim’s parents on Twitter.
The petitioner prayed that direction should be issued to Delhi Police to register an FIR against Rahul Gandhi under Section 23(4) of the POCSO Act and Juvenile Justice Act.
The plea also sought appropriate directions be issued to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to take necessary legal actions against Rahul Gandhi.
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