The Supreme Court on Friday asked the CBI, probing into circulation of sexual assault video tapes released on social media, to locate the person, who uploaded the clips within a week. “Not just the crime, circulating video of the crime for purpose of pleasure was more damaging to the society,” said a Bench of Justices Madan B lokur and UU lalit, which had suo moto taken cognisance of the tapes brought to its notice by the founder of NGO Prajwala, which works among rape victims.
In all, CBI has registered eight FIRs pertaining to eight clips circulated on the internet during last three months. These tapes were shot while an incident of rape took place or records sexually explicit acts showing the victim in a helpless position. CBI will file a status report on its probe by next date.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh informed the apex court that investigation was in progress following forensic examination of tapes. Once the photos of the culprits are culled out from the tapes, it will be circulated nationwide, ASG submitted. It will be supplied to DGPs of Odisha, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Commissioner of Delhi Police, where the incidents possibly took place, he added.
Besides tracking the culprits, the bench stressed on identifying who released the clips on the social media. “Unless and until you pounce on these criminals, purpose of preventing such crimes will be defeated,” the bench said. These things required to be dealt with by an “iron hand”, the judges observed, realising that already much time was lost since February 10, when the material in this regard first came to the notice of the Home Secretary.
“We are sorry but this exercise had to be done at the level of MHA itself,” said the bench. It asked ASG Singh, who represented MHA, to explain why it took 20 days (beginning February 10) till March 5, when CBI received the videos. The court refused to tolerate indifference by the Government as it threatened to hold the concerned MHA officer accountable and imposed costs on Odisha and Telangana Governments for not presenting details of investigation into the case.