The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has issued a notice to social media giant Facebook, calling for action against senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for violating the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act by posting videos of the parents of a nine-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered in Delhi on his Instagram profile.
In a letter to micro-blogging site Facebook Inc, which owns social media platform Instagram, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) registrar Anu Chaudhary has stated that the commission has come across a video on the Instagram profile of Gandhi-scion Rahul Gandhi wherein the identity of minor girl victim’s family was disclosed.
According to the notice issued by the NCPCR, the video shared by Rahul Gandhi on Instagram had shared specific personal details about the victim violating Section 23 of the POCSO Act, 2012, and Section 74 of Juvenile Justice Act,2015. Hence, the NCPCR has asked Facebook to remove the video put out by Rahul Gandhi on Instagram as it was a deprivation and violation of child rights.
The NCPCR informed Facebook Inc that Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 prohibits the disclosure of the identity of a child in any form of media and Section 23 of the POCSO Act, 2012 also stated that no information or photo of a child should be published in any form of media that revealed the identity of the child.
Further, the NCPCR has cited the Supreme Court judgment in the Nipun Saxena vs Govt of India (2019) to suggest that the apex court has issued specific guidelines regarding not disclosing the victims’ details even after their death.
Hence, the child rights body has demanded that Facebook Inc take appropriate action against Rahul Gandhi for violating the POCSO and JJ Act.
On August 4, Rahul Gandhi had visited the minor girl’s family on Wednesday and had tweeted a picture of the parents of the deceased minor girl.
Similarly, he had shared a video on Instagram of his meet with the victim’s family. The victim, a nine-year-old Dalit girl, was allegedly raped, murdered and then allegedly cremated by the alleged perpetrators, who are now in police custody. OpIndia is not linking the post of Rahul Gandhi so as to not compromise the identity of the rape victim.
The four accused have been booked under sections related to rape, murder and threats, and under the POCSO Act and the SC/ST Act provisions.
Twitter removes tweets put out by Rahul Gandhi
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had issued a similar notice to Twitter India seeking action against senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for revealing the identity of a nine-year-old girl alleged rape victim.
Complying with the notices of the NCPCR, the micro-blogging site Twitter had taken down Rahul Gandhi’s controversial tweet for revealing the identity of the rape victim.
The tweet does not appear on Rahul Gandhi’s timeline. So when one searches for the tweet on the timeline of Rahul Gandhi, instead of the tweet, Twitter displays a notice saying, “This Tweet is no longer available”.
The micro-blogging site Twitter had also informed the Delhi High Court that it had locked the Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi because the senior Congress leader had violated its policy by sharing the pictures of the minor rape victims in a tweet posted by him.
Following Twitter’s action, the Congress party had falsely claimed that Gandhi’s account was temporarily suspended by Twitter, and they were trying to get it restored. However, his account was visible to all that raised questions over the said tweet. Later, Twitter clarified that Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter was not suspended but locked for violating the rules.
After the clarification by Twitter, Congress quoted its previous tweet in which they had alleged Twitter has suspended the account and said it has been “temporarily locked.”
In fact, a complaint was lodged with Delhi Police against the Congress leader for disclosing Delhi’s Nangal rape victim’s identity and thus violating section 23 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 74 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 228A of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
