Facebook Officials Summoned Over Inaction on Rahul Gandhi's Snaps Showing Alleged Rape Victim's Kin

Last week, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi met the parents of a nine-year-old Dalit girl, who was allegedly raped and murdered in Delhi. In social media posts demanding justice for the "daughter of India", Gandhi shared pics of him consoling the deceased girl's parents in violation of the law as it is prohibited from revealing the faces of a victim's kin.

India's National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has summoned Facebook officials for not responding to its notice against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Instagram post revealing the identities of the parents of an alleged rape victim. 

Facebook officials have now been asked to appear before the Delhi-based NCPCR on Tuesday, 17 August. Whether the meeting will be in-person or virtual remains unclear at present. 

The development comes on the same day that Twitter restored Gandhi's account after locking it for seven days as punishment for posting unlawful, sensitive information that violated the policies of the platform. 

On 4 August, the NCPCR had reached out to Twitter, demanding that it remove Gandhi's tweet as soon as possible. 

After the Congress leader submitted a consent letter from the parents of the alleged rape victim, whose faces were shown in the pictures, Twitter reactivated his account on Saturday. 

Gandhi's posts on Twitter and Instagram violate Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and Section 23(2) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, an NCPCR-associated social activist Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar recently told the Delhi High Court while seeking action against the 50-year-old Congress leader. 

According to the said laws, the name, address, school, or other particulars that may lead to the identification of the child in conflict with the law and/or victim, cannot be disclosed in the media or public space. 

The case of the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old Delhi girl from the Dalit community earlier this month has sent shockwaves across India. 

According to her parents, she went to fetch some water from the cooler of a crematorium near her house in Delhi. 

Some time later, a priest from the crematorium reached out to the girl's parents, informing them that their child had died after being electrocuted by the water cooler. 

The crematorium workers hurriedly burned the girl's body without getting the consent of her family and informing police officials, which raised suspicions regarding their involvement in the child's demise.

The police have since arrested the 55-year-old priest, Radhey Shyam along with three crematorium employees, Salim, Laxmi Narayan, and Kuldeep to investigate their involvement in the case.

A board of three doctors has been asked to conduct an autopsy on the charred remains of the body that was pulled off the pyre midway through the cremation. 

Fresher details on the case from the police are expected.