SC sought creation of a national register containing details of those convicted for sexual crimes
New Delhi: Observing that the gangrape video uploaded in social media was shocking, the Supreme Court on Friday ordered a CBI probe into the uploading of such tapes showing two incidents of rapes, including a crime perpetrated by a gang of five men on a young woman. The social justice bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Uday Lalit passed this order taking suo motu cognisance of a letter written to Chief Justice H.L. Dattu by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala sending a pendrive with two videos of the crime committed by the gang and seeking action against culprits.
Commenting on the gangrape videos sent to it by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala, a Supreme Court bench of justices Madan B. Lokur and Uday Lalit observed, “This issue is extremely serious and of great public importance and something needs to be done.” The videos were later withdrawn from the website. The bench while ordering a CBI probe issued notice to the Centre, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi and Orissa, as the heinous crimes appeared to have been committed by the offenders hailing from these states, directed the CBI director to immediately register a case and start the investigation without any delay. “We expect the police of the states concerned to take urgent action to apprehend the culprits,” it said.
The bench noted that the letter of Dr Sunita Krishnan (of Prajwala) indicated that the offence of rape was being committed with impunity and the offenders had the audacity to video record the crime and put it in the public domain. This had a negative impact on the criminal justice system.
The bench sought the response of the Union ministries of home and information technology to Prajwala’s suggestions for preventing such crimes in the future. Besides the CBI probe, the NGO has sought the setting up of a task force in the Union home ministry to deal with such technology-driven sexual crimes. Public should be encouraged to report the availability of such videos on the Internet to the police through email.
It also sought creation of a national register containing the details of those convicted for sexual crimes, including molestation, stalking and rape. The ministry it said should enter into a tie-up with social sites such as Youtube and whatsapp to prevent dissemination of such material.
The bench observed that the Telangana State police had failed to apprehend the rapists or those involved in damaging the car of a Prajwala office-bearer who had circulated the edited video clips to facilitate the arrest of the culprits. The bench directed the matter for further listing on March 13.
( Source : dc )
Next Story
