Rahul’s tweet on Delhi rape case against policy: Twitter
GANDHI DISCLOSED IDENTITY OF THE VICTIM, VIOLATING PROVISIONS OF JJ ACT AND POCSO, AN ACTIVIST SAID
NEW DELHI: Twitter on Monday informed the Delhi High Court that it has locked the account of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi as his tweet on August 4 with photographs of the family of an alleged Dalit rape victim was in violation of the micro-blogging site’s policy.
Appearing for Twitter, senior advocate Sajjan Poovaya told the bench comprising chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh that the objectionable post by the former Congress chief was also removed from the platform.
The submissions were made when the court was hearing a plea by social activist Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar who alleged that Gandhi had violated the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act and the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act by disclosing sensitive information about the victim and her family members, and by publishing a photograph of her parents on his Twitter handle on August 4.
In his plea, Mhadlekar said that Gandhi made the posts related to the crime on Twitter for political gains, and sought directions to Twitter, Delhi Police and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights to take action against the Congress leader for violating guidelines which mandated that the identity of a child victim of a crime shall not be disclosed.
Appreciating Twitter’s action of removing the tweet, the bench said, “So nice of you… No need to explain much once you have removed it. Immediately you have responded.”
However, when the petitioner’s counsel Gautam Jha disputed this stand and sought that an affidavit be filed by Twitter in this regard, the court said, “Why should they lie? The counsel for Twitter is saying that they have removed (the content). Very responsible… Immediately, even without asking from the court, they removed it. They are making the statement. There is no reason to dispute”.
“If this is the attitude, we are not issuing a notice,” an agitated bench said and posted the next hearing for September 27. It also asked the counsels of all parties to file short submissions by the next date.
On August 1, a nine-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly raped and killed by a priest and three employees of a crematorium in Purani Nangal village, near Delhi Cantonment. The suspects allegedly told the family that she died of electrocution when she was fetching water from an electric water cooler installed at the crematorium. They allegedly cremated her body after threatening her parents.