Disclosing rape victim's identity: Rahul in trouble

One-liner: The Delhi HC on Friday sought the national child rights panel's response to a plea seeking the registration of an FIR against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly revealing a Dalit girl's identity, who was raped and killed in 2021, by posting on Twitter a photo with her parents.

Notice issued: A bench issued a notice to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCOCR) and granted it four weeks to file a counter-affidavit in response to the petition. The court listed the matter for further hearing on July 27.

• At the outset, the counsel for NCPCR submitted that a formal notice has not been issued to them and urged the court to issue a notice to the child rights body on the petition to enable it to file an affidavit

Twitter's claim: The NCPCR had earlier told the court that despite Twitter's claim about taking down Rahul's alleged tweet, the offence of making such disclosure survives.

Violation: A social activist moved the HC in 2021 claiming that by posting the photo with the parents of the child victim, Rahul violated the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, which prohibit the disclosure of the identity of minor victims of sexual offences.

Flashback: A nine-year-old Dalit girl died under suspicious circumstances on Aug 1, 2021, with her parents alleging that she was raped, murdered and cremated by a crematorium's priest in southwest Delhi's Old Nangal village.

Political mileage: On Oct 5, 2021, a bench issued a notice to Twitter on the petition which alleged that Rahul was attempting to take political mileage out of the unfortunate incident.