Hathras gang rape: FIR over revealing identity of victim registered, police inform Delhi HC

The plea alleges inaction by Delhi Police against those committing the offence under Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code, which makes disclosure of the identity of a rape victim a criminal offence, stating that the said identity of the victim was revealed through several mediums.

Taking note of Delhi Police’s submission, the bench said, “Counsel appearing for Delhi Police has said that an FIR has already been registered for offence under Section 228A of the IPC meaning thereby that prayer ‘a’ stands satisfied.” The bench, however, noted that there were other prayers also made in the plea.

The plea further seeks a direction to the police to take appropriate action so that all the respondents take down or withdraw any material, news article, social media post or any such information published by them on the details of the victim’s identity in this case and or other similar cases.

The bench orally said, “Unless and until we get a positive response from everybody that it has been taken down, how do we proceed?”.

The petitioner’s counsel submitted that all respondents in the matter had not filed their replies. “Only YouTube and Buzzfeed have said that they have taken down the online content,” the counsel said, adding that Twitter had filed a reply seeking time to respond to the same. The counsel appearing for Facebook said that there was no allegation against them.

The high court thereafter granted time to those respondents who have not filed their response in the matter listing it for August 22.

In 2021, the high court had issued notice to Delhi Police, Facebook, Twitter and various media publications, including Buzzfeed, YouTube and The Millennium Post, among others.

On September 14, 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped and left bleeding in a field. She was found by her family and taken to a hospital in Aligarh and then to Delhi where she later died at Safdarjung Hospital. She was cremated in the middle of the night in her village. Family members claimed that the cremation, which took place well past midnight, was without their consent and they were not allowed to bring home the body one last time.

On March 2, 2023, a special court in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district convicted the main accused and acquitted three others of all charges in the case.