Supreme Court raps media over pictures of rape victim

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed serious concern over growing incidents of child rape and banned electronic media from putting up images of minor girls, who were allegedly raped, even in morphed or blurred forms.

A bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta, which is already seized of issues relating to observation homes, took a suo motu cognisance of the rape incidents after receiving a letter from Patna highlighting the plight of girls in Muzaffarpur shelter home for destitutes, where dozens of inmates were sedated and raped. The bench also barred the media from conducting any interviews with the minor victims.

The Supreme Court bench agreed to look into the issue of preventing the victims from being harassed and traumatised by all authorities, including the police and media. It also issued a notice to the Centre seeking its response.

The bench also sought explanation from Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government and the women and child development ministry as to why neither of the two took action to stop minor girls from being raped in shelters home in Muzaffarpur.

Over 40 minor girls and boys have been raped and sodomised over the last five months in multiple shelter homes in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur.

The case of multiple child rapes in a shelter home in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur hit headlines a few days ago.

Officials and employees of a children’s home run by Seva Sankalp Evam Vikash Samiti have been accused of mentally, physically and sexually abusing children at this shelter home.

Girls between the age of 7 and 17 years have alleged that they were raped and sexually assaulted in the shelter home. Most of these girls suffer from speech-impairment, were given sedatives with dinner and then raped at night. Many of the girls were missing and it’s alleged that those who resisted were killed. A local NGO, Seva Sankalp and Vikas Samiti run the shelter home. Brajesh Thakur who ran the NGO has since been arrested. The Bihar government has already handed over the probe to the CBI.

The matter came to light after a social audit report of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) alleged that 42 girl inmates of the Muzaffarpur Balika Grih had allegedly been sexually assaulted. The inmates were allegedly beaten up or drugged before being sexually abused. Eom.

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