SC pulls up home ministry for not acting promptly on rape videos

The Supreme Court on Friday took to task the union home ministry for doing just nothing for 20 days on a complaint about the posting of two rape videos on social messaging website WhatsApp that was brought to its notice on February 10.

"Unless you pounce upon the criminal these offence will be repeated. It should have been done in February itself," the social justice bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice U.U.Lalit told Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh taking exception to delay in taking action.

Asking Singh what the ministry was doing for 20 days, the court said that investigating agency must zero in on the person who first uploaded the rape video for the pleasure of somebody.

It also asked the ASG about the officer who received the complaint on February 10 from advocate Aparna Bhat and why did he take so long to act on it.

Singth told the court that the Central Bureau of Investigation has registered eight preliminary enquiries and the videos are being currently examined by the Central Forensic Science Laboratory. He said that details of the video clips would be provided to the concerned states after CBI receives report from the CFSL.

The court's drubbing of the home ministry came in the course of the hearing in the wake of a letter sent by a Hyderabad based NGO Prajwala to the Chief Justice H.L.Dattu along with two rape videos which the court had taken suo motu cognizance of. Two videos in a pen drive showed a man raping a woman and another man filming it.

The court asked the central government, the CBI and Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Telengana and Delhi governments to make joint efforts to nab the rapist in the two videos.

It said that the photographs of the rapists should be taken from the videos and circulated through media to track them. The court said that it will help people in identifying the culprits involved in the brutal attack.

It asked the CBI to take immediate steps in three days to take out photographs from video clips and publish them in Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Telangana and Delhi.

The court imposed a fine of Rs.50,000 on Odisha for the non-appearance of its lawyer despite the issuance of notice by the court on February 27. The court also imposed a fine of Rs.35,000 on Telangana for the failure to furnish the details of police investigation on the attack on the car of belong to NGO Prajwala during its "Shame the Rapist" campaign on social networking sites. The fine amount will go to the NGO.