Mother of the alleged rape victim from Delhi in a conversation has revealed that no permission was sought from her by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi prior to sharing her image on social media. POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act prohibits sharing image of the minor rape victim or her parents which could reveal her identity. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had shared image of the victim’s parents on social media, following which his account was locked out.
https://twitter.com/TNNavbharat/status/1427490476014276613?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwIn a video that has been shared on social media, the mother of the alleged victim has revealed that she had interacted with Rahul Gandhi the way she interacted with the person interviewing her at that time and that no additional permission to share her details on social media revealing her identity was taken.
When the interviewer asked the mother if she has signed any consent letter for her identity being revealed, she said she has not signed any such letter. “Neither I, nor my husband signed any papers,” she said. She added that she had no idea her picture was being shared and said that her only concern is that her daughter gets justice and the perpetrators get death sentence for the crime.
https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/1427491618798460937?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwIn another interaction with Times Now, the mother said that Rahul Gandhi had promised to help them justice and no such consent was taken. “We did not give our photo, they took on their own,” she said. She said she and her husband are both illiterate and have neither signed any paper nor put their thumb print on any.
Congress’ account ‘INC_Television’ had tweeted on 14th August that the parents had given a written consent for sharing their image.
https://twitter.com/INC_Television/status/1426385598986682368?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThis was used as basis to get Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account handle unlocked after he violated the law of the land.
Rahul Gandhi vs Twitter
After Rahul Gandhi violated the law of the land by revealing identity of the rape victim, the NCPCR wrote to Twitter to take down the tweet within 24 hours in case Rahul Gandhi himself does not delete it. Subsequently, Twitter deleted the tweet and Rahul Gandhi’s account was locked out, likely for 12 hours on first offence, over policy violation. However, later after the reports came in that they had ‘permission’ from the victim’s parents to use the picture, Twitter winked and reinstated the tweet but flagged it as ‘unavailable’ in response to legal demand. Those who access Rahul Gandhi’s account from outside of India can see the contentious tweet revealing rape victim’s identity.
Subsequently, various Congress leaders, too, tweeted the image of rape victim’s parents in ‘solidarity’ with Rahul Gandhi who violated the POCSO Act. Those tweets were also eventually flagged and some accounts were locked out. Then, many Congress leaders changed their profile picture and name to that of Rahul Gandhi to again show solidarity. However, this was also in violation of Twitter policy and again many Congress leaders’ social media accounts were locked out.
The Congress leaders then cried foul that Twitter was acting on behest of Indian government despite having violated the law of the land. Many netizens speculated that this could be shadowboxing between Twitter and Congress so that Twitter appears neutral and can have a freehand for suspending/restricting Twitter accounts of BJP leaders ahead of high stakes elections in coming months.
Now, while Twitter has unlocked Rahul Gandhi’s account, he has still not tweeted.