Kathua rape case: Media houses apologise for revealing victim's identity

Media houses, issued notices for revealing the identity of the eight-year-old Kathua rape case victim, today apologised before the Delhi High Court and were directed to pay Rs 10 lakh each to the Jammu and Kashmir Victim Compensation Fund.

Advocates representing media houses told the court that the mistake of revealing the identity of the victim was due to their ignorance of the law and a misconception that they could name her as she was dead.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar directed that the compensation amount be deposited with the registrar general of the high court within a week and the money be transferred to the Jammu and Kashmir legal service authority's account to be used for Jammu and Kashmir's victim compensation scheme.

The bench also 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.

BJP on Unnao, Kathua rape protests: Why no candle march in other cases?

Kathua rape protests - The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notices to several media houses for disclosing the identity of the eight-year-old girl who was gangraped and killed in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, which took up the issue on its own after coming across print and electronic media reports, sought a response from the media houses, asking why action should not be taken against them on the matter.

 The girl from the nomadic Bakerwal Muslim community had disappeared from near her home in the forests next to Rasana village in Kathua, 90 km from here, on January 10. A week later, her body was found in the same area. The state police Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed a main chargesheet against seven accused persons and a separate chargesheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district earlier this week. The chargesheet revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged, raped inside a place of worship before being killed.

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