'Bois Locker room' incident: PIL in HC for SIT or CBI probe and arrests of offenders

A PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court seeking an SIT or CBI investigation in the incident of "Bois Locker Room", an Instagram group in which obscene messages and morphed pictures of underage girls were shared, and demanded arrest the offenders.

The participants of the chat room were mostly young teenage boys from Delhi who allegedly shared lewd and objectionable content pertaining to minor girls. The chat room was used to make comments and share compromising and allegedly morphed images of minor girls.

The plea is likely to come up for hearing on May 13.

Petitioner Dev Ashish Dubey also sought protection for the girls and women who have highlighted the crime of Delhi school students so that they cannot be harmed by the members of the group.

"Since the issue is related to the offence committed against girls and women by the group members of Instagram group named as 'Bois Locker Room', which was created by school students mainly staying in South Delhi. Hence the petitioner preferred this PIL," the plea said.

The plea, filed through advocates Dushyant Tiwari and Om Prakash Parihar, sought direction to the Centre and Delhi government to get the social media chat group incident investigated through a Special Investigation Team (SIT) or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

It also sought direction to the authorities to arrest all the members of the Instagram Group "Bios Locker Room" members immediately.

"The entire issue needs to be investigated by the SIT or CBI as these students belong to high profile families and there is an apprehension that the investigation or enquiry conducted by the local police will be influenced and wrongdoers will never be arrested and punished," it alleged.

It said instead of being apologetic or fearful after the vulgar comments and obscene photos posted by them came into public domain, the boys openly threatened the girls and the offence committed by these students through the Instagram group is illegal and amounts to violation of various laws, it said.

Earlier, two advocates had written a letter to the Delhi High Court Chief Justice to take suo motu cognisance of the incident.

Delhi Police's Cyber cell have arrested the 18-year-old admin of the chat group. He appeared for his class 12 board examinations this year.

Police have said he is a student of a school in Delhi-NCR and four group members, who all are majors, above 18 years, have joined the probe.

The juveniles, who are part of the group, are being quizzed at their home in the presence of their parents and members of NGOs. A juvenile member was apprehended.

The Delhi Commission of Women (DCW) had issued a notice to Instagram and Delhi Police, taking cognisance of the matter.