The National Commission for Women (NCW) has served notices to BJP IT-Cell head Amit Malviya, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, and actor Swara Bhaskar for revealing the identity of the Hathras victim through posts on Twitter. The Commission has directed them to remove their posts immediately and explain why they shared material that revealed the identity of Hathras victim on social media.
On September 14, a 19-year-old girl was allegedly raped by four men in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. Badly injured, the girl was initially admitted to a district hospital. But after her condition deteriorated, she was shifted to Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital, where she succumbed to injuries. Following the death, the UP Police took the body and performed a hurried cremation in the dead of the night.
The family alleged that the police did not let them see the body for one last time and cremated the girl forcefully. This triggered massive protests with opposition leaders and a section of people questioning the Yogi Adityanath government’s handling of the situation. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi also visited the family of the victim in Hathras. While it was alleged that the girl was raped, the UP Police maintained that medical reports have ruled out sexual assault.
Many politicians and civil society activists like Swara Bhaskar took to Twitter to strongly criticise the handling of the case by UP Police. BJP’s Amit Malviya had also shared a video in which the girl’s face was visible and she was seen lying on the ground. The Commission has now reportedly sent separate notices to Bhasker, Malviya and Singh saying that it has come across several posts wherein the picture of the victim was used.
“In view of the above, you are hereby required to provide a satisfactory explanation to the Commission on receipt of this notice and shall remove and refrain from transmission of such pictures/videos on the social media as they are widely circulated by your follower which is prohibited by the existing law,” said the notice cited by the IE.