Calcutta High Court directs CBI to look into derogatory social media posts using RG Kar victim’s photo

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Thursday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to look into derogatory social media posts using the picture of the junior doctor who was raped and killed within the RG Kar Medical College & Hospital premises in August.

Giving this direction to the CBI while acting on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in the matter, the Division Bench of Chief Justice, TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya observed that such posts were simply unacceptable.

The next hearing in the matter has been scheduled on September 18, by when the central agency will submit a report to the court.

The Division Bench also observed that since the CBI has taken over the investigation it should look into the matter and check whether anything can be done in the matter.

The court also questioned whether the state has any mechanism to regulate such practices where the photo of the victim is uploaded on social media.

In his petition, the petitioner argued that although there are clear instructions from the court in the matter, enough initiative was not being taken by the state police to curb this menace.

During the hearing on the RG Kar rape and murder case last month, the Supreme Court, too, directed the removal of the name, photos and videos of the victim from all social media platforms.

The three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court then observed that disclosing the identity of any sexual assault victim was in violation of the apex court’s earlier order which emphasised the need to protect a victim and the family from scrutiny and trauma.

Earlier the Calcutta High Court, too, made strong observations about this trend of revealing the victim’s identity on social media.

However, even after that, a section of the netizens have either continued with the practice or refrained from deleting the social media posts revealing the victim’s identity that they made earlier.