Delhi High Court seeks Police report on plea for FIR against Rahul Gandhi for revealing rape victim's identity

The Delhi High Court on Thursday directed the Delhi Police to file a status report in a plea seeking legal action against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly revealing the identity of a 9-year-old Dalit girl who was raped and killed in a crematorium in Delhi..A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Mini Pushkarna ordered the Police to file a report in 10 days.The matter will now be considered on December 21..The Court was dealing with a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed by an activist named Makrand Suresh Mhadlekar taking exception to Gandhi's tweets which had photos of the parents of the deceased girl.Mhadlekar had said that these photos would reveal the identity of the victim girl and are consequently were in violation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act (JJ Act) and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO Act).He added that as per Section 74 of Juvenile Justice Act and Section 23(2) of POCSO Act, there is a mandate to not disclose the identity of the victim or her family members..Today, the counsel appearing for the petitioner as well as National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) told the Bench that even though the incident happened nearly three years back, no action has been taken by the Delhi Police.NCPCR’s lawyer said that the Delhi Police must register an FIR in the case.Meanwhile, Advocate Tarannum Cheema appeared for Gandhi and told the Bench that the Court has not issued formal notice to him..The Bench said that it will first examine the status report of the Delhi Police and then decide what needs to be done. .The case pertains to rape of a 9-year-old girl who had gone to fetch water at a cooler installed at a crematorium in Delhi's Purana Nangal area when the priest at the crematorium along with three others committed the brutal act.Gandhi subsequently visited the parents of the girl and photos of him consoling them were tweeted from his official Twitter handle.On August 4, 2021, NCPCR took cognizance of the tweets and directed Twitter to take down the tweet by Gandhi as it contained sensitive information about the family members of the rape victim.Twitter had first suspended Gandhi's account. Later, the account was restored but his tweet was withheld in India..NCPCR supports PIL in Delhi High Court seeking action against Rahul Gandhi for revealing identity of child rape victim