The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), the country’s top child rights body on Tuesday summoned Facebook officials for not responding to its notice flagging Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Instagram post for allegedly revealing the identity of a nine-year-old who was ‘murdered and raped’.
The latest NCPCR communication to Facebook, which owns the photo and video-sharing social networking platform Instagram, follows its notice seeking action against Rahul Gandhi’s profile for posting a video of the affected family, revealing their identity, which is against the law.
“However, no reply or action taken report has been received by you,” the commission said in its follow-up letter.
The commission has asked the officials of Facebook to take necessary action against the Instagram profile of Rahul Gandhi over the violation of provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and the Indian Penal Code, and demanded the removal of the video.
The commission further asked the Facebook officials to appear on Tuesday at 5 pm in person at the NCPCR Office or through video conferencing along with the details of the action taken.
The NCPCR on August 4th wrote to Twitter, to take appropriate action against the account of Rahul Gandhi for sharing the photo of the victim’s family. However, the Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi was later blocked following the complaint.
Rahul Gandhi last week met the victims of the family members and assured the family that he would support the family in getting justice and “will not back down even an inch”.
After meeting the girls family, he posted a picture of his meeting with the girl’s parents on Twitter and wrote in Hindi, “Parents’ tears are saying only one thing their daughter, the daughter of this country, deserves justice. And I am with them on this path to justice.”
The nine year old girl died under mysterious circumstances when she went to get water from a cooler at a crematorium in the Old Nangal area in southwest Delhi. The girl’s parents alleged that she was raped and her body forcibly cremated by a crematorium priest who had falsely claimed that she was electrocuted.
Following the protests hundreds of locals, including the girl’s parents, have been staging a protest near the site of the incident, demanding capital punishment for the accused.
