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SC backs campaign #ShameTheRapist
The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into gang rape videos that were being circulated on WhatsApp recently. The video shows five youths raping a girl by threatening to leak the video and photos, and took turns even as she pleaded for mercy.“It is a serious issue and something needs to be done. It is quite clear this issue is extremely serious and of great public importance,” the court said.
Orders CBI to probe the gang rape video
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The Supreme Court on Friday ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation to probe into gang rape videos that were being circulated on WhatsApp recently. The video shows five youths raping a girl by threatening to leak the video and photos, and took turns even as she pleaded for mercy.“It is a serious issue and something needs to be done. It is quite clear this issue is extremely serious and of great public importance,” the court said.
The Court remarked that the men appeared to be from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and were “Bengali-speaking”. The three states, along with Odisha, have been asked to look for the rapists in the video. The union Home and IT ministries have also been served notice on the videos, which have fueled revulsion and horror.
The court took note of city-based activist Sunitha Krishnan’s complaint. Dr Krishnan uploaded the videos on YouTube earlier this month, asking viewers to help identify the rapists in what she called the #ShameTheRapist campaign. But the videos, believed to be six months old, were removed by YouTube citing that the videos violated the terms of service. Though the men in the video are clearly visible, no arrests have been made so far.
Krishnan said that an acquaintance had alerted her about one of the videos after receiving them on WhatsApp. “10 seconds into the video, I was overcome. I had to stop as I needed to throw up. People don't come forward when it comes to helping in getting the perpetrators arrested,” she said.
Determined to try and change that, she asked her husband Rajesh Touchriver, a filmmaker, to edit the video to protect the rape victim’s identity and highlight the faces of the men who assaulted her. Within a few hours after Sunitha, who is also the co-founder and chief functionary of NGO Prajwala, launched the online campaign #ShameTheRapist, unidentified assailants tried to intimidate her by vandalising her car, which was parked outside Prajawala’s office in Charminar. Krishnan, who works against sex-trafficking and prostitution through her NGO, was not in the car at the time of the attack.
