PLEA BEFORE DELHI HC SEEKING LEGAL ACTION AGAINST RAHUL GANDHI OVER HIS TWEETS WHICH REVEALED THE IDENTITY OF A 9-YEAR-OLD RAPE VICTIM

A plea has been filed by one of Makrand Suresh before the Delhi High Court seeking legal action against Rahul Gandhi over his tweets which allegedly revealed the identity of a 9-year-old Dalit girl who was raped and killed in a crematorium situated in Delhi. He also allegedly tweeted photos of the deceased girl and her parents.

The plea said that the revealing identity of the victim is a violation of the Juvenile Justice (care and protection of Children Act) as per section 74 of the JJ Act and section 23 (2) of the Protection of children from sexual offences Act, which prohibits the disclosure of Identity of children or their family members. 

BACKGROUND 

The 9-year-old went to a cooler to fetch water, installed at a crematorium in Delhi. The priest, along with these more committed brutal Acts on the 9-year-old victim. Rahul Gandhi visited the victim's parents, after which photos of him sympathising with them were tweeted from his official account.

The National Commission for proof of Child Rights took cognizance of the matter on August 4th and directed Gandhi to remove the tweets. Subsequently, Twitter suspended the Congress leader's account.

The plea before the High Court argued that Gandhi tried to take advantage of the unfortunate incident in order to boost his political image. The Petitioner sought direction to be issued to the Delhi Police to register an FIR against Gandhi. The plea prayed appropriate directions to be issued to the National Commission for Protection of Child a right to take legal action against Gandhi.

Author: Papiha Ghoshal