New Delhi, April 18: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed some media organisations to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation for disclosing the identity of an eight-year-old girl who was raped and murdered in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district.
Advocates representing the media houses told a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar that the mistake was due to ignorance of law and misconception that they could name the victim as she was dead.
As the media houses apologized, the court asked them to deposit the compensation amount with the Registrar General of the High Court within a week and directed that the money be transferred to the Jammu and Kashmir to be used for the victim's compensation scheme.
The court directed that wide and continuous publicity be given to the statutory provisions of law regarding privacy of victims of sexual offences and punishment for revealing their identities.
The court observed that there were long term repercussion to the victim's family, especially for the women members, due to such kind of reporting.
The court last week issued notice to several media houses for disclosing the victim's identity, saying it violated law and was punishable under Section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the publication of photographs and the name of the rape victim, the court said that under Section 23 (Procedure for media) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act any person who discloses the identity of a child victim could be sent to a minimum six months' imprisonment.
The High Court also said it will take up the issue of social media being used as a tool for revealing and disseminating the identity of victims of sexual violence at a later stage and listed the matter for further hearing on April 25.
The minor in Kathua was held captive inside a temple and sedated before being repeatedly raped and murdered.
Sanjhi Ram, the caretaker of the temple, has been named the main accused and is said to have planned the heinous crime to instil fear among the Bakarwal community to which the victim belonged.
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UP: Three killed, one injured in road accident in Kannauj
Kannauj (UP), Mar 11 (PTI): Three people were killed and one person was injured in an accident involving a tractor trolley and two motorcycles on the national highway here, police said on Wednesday.
The incident took place on National Highway 24 near Atara village at around 11 pm on Tuesday.
According to Sadar Kotwali Station House Officer Jitendra Pratap Singh, a farmer from Mawai village was returning home on a tractor-trolley when it collided with a motorcycle near Atara village in Jalalpur Panwara area.
The impact of the collision was so severe that it threw the two riders onto the road, killing them on the spot. The deceased have been identified as Mohammad Ahad (20) and Arbaaz (16), both residents of Inayatpur village.
A man identified as Raju, a resident of Mawai village, was also injured in the accident and was admitted to the district hospital.
After the collision, the tractor driver lost control of the vehicle, which overturned onto another motorcycle, killing its rider Amit (36), a resident of Chhibramau, on the spot.
The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, police said.
