NCPCR summons Facebook officials over Rahul Gandhi’s Instagram post

PTI, Aug 14, 2021, 12:09 PM IST

The country’s apex child rights body NCPCR has summoned Facebook officials Tuesday for not responding to its notice flagging Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Instagram post allegedly revealing the identity of a nine-year-old rape and murder victim.

The latest NCPCR communication to Facebook, which owns the photo and video-sharing social networking platform Instagram, follows its notice seeking action against Gandhi’s profile for posting a video of the affected family.

”However, no reply/action taken report has been received by you,” the commission said in its follow-up letter.

The commission has now asked Facebook officials to appear at 5 pm Tuesday in-person at the NCPCR Office in Janpath or through video conferencing along with the details of the action taken.

Earlier, the NCPCR had asked Facebook to take appropriate action against the Instagram profile of Gandhi over the alleged 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. Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, prohibits the disclosure of the identity of a child in any form of media and Section 23 of the POCSO Act, 2012, also states that no information or photo of a child should be published in any form of media which could reveal the identity of the child. This information under Section 23 of the POCSO Act includes his/her name, address, photograph, family details, school, neighbourhood or any other particulars which may lead to disclosure of identity of the child.

On August 4, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) wrote to Twitter, asking it to take action against the handle of Gandhi for posting the photo of the family.

The microblogging site blocked the account of Gandhi following the complaint. Twitter on its part has said that it has followed the due process as Gandhi’s tweet on the family of the victim was against its rules and the law.

A Congress leader Saturday the account has now been restored.

Gandhi last week met the family of the nine-year-old girl and asserted that he is with them on the path to justice and ”will not back down even an inch”.

Later, 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 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.

Hundreds of locals, including the victim’s parents, have been staging a protest near the site of the incident, demanding capital punishment for the accused.