Parents of minor consented to Rahul Gandhi tweeting photo: Twitter to Delhi HC

Twitter informed the high court that the parents of a minor girl, who was allegedly raped and murdered in Delhi last year, had consented to their photo being shared by Rahul Gandhi on the microblogging site

NEW DELHI: Twitter has informed the Delhi high court that the parents of a minor Dalit girl, who was allegedly raped and murdered in Delhi’s cantonment area last year, had consented to their photo being shared by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on the microblogging site.

A recent photo of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. (HT photo/ File)

The photo in question was later removed in accordance with the country’s laws.

In a response to the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on August 13 last year, Twitter had said that it received confirmation that the minor’s parents had approved the sharing of the image on the site.

The social media platform also said that Gandhi had filed a formal appeal against the suspension of his Twitter handle.

The NCPCR had earlier written to Twitter on August 4, asking it to take action against Gandhi for revealing the identity of the minor victim’s parents.

“We are, however, in response to your legal request (NCPCR’s request), withholding the reported content in India under our assessment of the applicable local laws, which we do acknowledge disallow disclosure of such information, including the referencing of the parents of the victim, which cannot be disclosed under authorisation. Accordingly, we have withheld the reported content in India,” Twitter told the NCPCR in an email.

Social activist Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar had alleged that by posting the photo of the victim’s parents, Gandhi violated the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, which prohibit the disclosure of identity of minor victims of sexual offences.

On October 5, Twitter had told the court that the tweet was removed and the Congress leader’s account was operational without the objectionable post.

The court had then asked Twitter to file an affidavit stating the facts after the petitioner’s counsel objected to the submissions made by Twitter’s counsel. In response, the social media platform said it restored Gandhi’s Twitter account following an appeal from him.

“I state that Respondent No. 1 (Rahul Gandhi) failed to delete the tweet and filed an appeal with Twitter against the suspension of his account. However, based on the legal request issued by Respondent No. 2 (NCPCR), the answering respondent (Twitter) withheld the impugned content in India… Thereafter, Respondent No. 1’s account was restored based on the appeal filed by him in accordance with Twitter’s policy. As mentioned earlier, the reported content continues to be withheld,” the document read.

Twitter has said that it had suspended Gandhi’s account on August 8 and the content in question was no longer available on the platform since then.

It said that the action was taken on the basis of the potential risk of harm to the parents of the minor child over the disclosure of their identity in the content tweeted by Gandhi.

The matter is expected to be heard on January 28.

The Dalit girl, 9, died under suspicious circumstances on August 1 while her parents alleged that she was raped, murdered and cremated by a priest at a crematorium in southwest Delhi’s Old Nangal village.

According to the contents of the FIR filed by the girl’s mother, on the evening of August 1, the child went to fetch cold water from a cooler at the crematorium. Then at around 6pm, the priest and three employees of the crematorium informed the child’s mother that her that her daughter died from electrocution.

The alleged rape and murder case triggered protests in the Delhi cantonment area. Several political leaders such as Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the victim’s family and assured their support in pursuing the matter and getting justice.