New Delhi: The National Commission for Women (NCW) on Tuesday has sought an explanation from BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya, Congress leader Digvijay Singh and actress Swara Bhaskar for allegedly revealing the identity of Hathras victim on Twitter.
The women commission has also directed them to immediately remove these posts and refrain from sharing such posts in future.
In separate notices to Bhaskar, Malviya and Digvijay Singh, the NCW said that it has come across several twitter posts wherein the picture of the victim of the alleged gang rape incident 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”, the NCW said in the notice.
Later, in a tweet, NCW said, “@NCWIndia has served notices to @amitmalviya @digvijaya_28 and @ReallySwara seeking explanation on their Twitter posts revealing the identity of the #Hathras victim along with a direction to remove these posts immediately and to refrain from sharing such posts in future”.
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@NCWIndia has served notices to @amitmalviya @digvijaya_28 & @ReallySwara seeking explanation on their #Twitter posts revealing the identity of the #Hathras vicitm along with a direction to remove these posts immediately & to refrain from shairng such posts in future @sharmarekha
— NCW (@NCWIndia) October 6, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="
">@NCWIndia has served notices to @amitmalviya @digvijaya_28 & @ReallySwara seeking explanation on their #Twitter posts revealing the identity of the #Hathras vicitm along with a direction to remove these posts immediately & to refrain from shairng such posts in future @sharmarekha
— NCW (@NCWIndia) October 6, 2020@NCWIndia has served notices to @amitmalviya @digvijaya_28 & @ReallySwara seeking explanation on their #Twitter posts revealing the identity of the #Hathras vicitm along with a direction to remove these posts immediately & to refrain from shairng such posts in future @sharmarekha
— NCW (@NCWIndia) October 6, 2020
This comes after BJP (IT) head, Amit Malviya on October 2, tweeted a video of the 19-year-old Hathras rape victim, asserting that she was not sexually assaulted.
In the video, the women can be seen lying on the ground and her face clearly visible. Till late Saturday night, the video was still up on Malviya’s Twitter account.
Not only Amit Malviya but others like Digvijay Singh, Swara Bhaskar and many others have revealed the identity of the Hathras victim on social media and others at Jantar Mantar, the NCW chief informed earlier.
Also Read: Action against Malviya, Swara, Digvijaya once rape is 'clear' in Hathras case: NCW
It is pertinent to note that under Indian Penal provisions, anyone who reveals the identity of a person who is a victim of sexual assault or suspected to be one can be imprisoned for up to two years.
A 19-year-old woman was allegedly raped in a Hathras village in UP by four men on September 14.
After her condition deteriorated, she was admitted to Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.
According to reports, she was cremated in early hours, with her family alleging the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the middle of the night.
Local police officers, however, had claimed the cremation was carried out “as per the wishes of the family”.
The incident led to nation-wide protests with people from a different section of the society demanding justice for the victim.
Earlier, the National Commission for Women chief Rekha Sharma had said that the commission took suo moto cognizance of the incident and has received an action taken report from the Uttar Pradesh police on the matter and it was told that four accused were arrested and charges were framed against them and compensation was also given to the victim.
She also informed that the commission has reached out to the victim’s family and assured all possible assistance to the family of the deceased.
