The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to appoint a nodal officer to oversee the removal of social media posts revealing the identity of the victim in the Kolkata rape-murder case, reported The Hindu.
A 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered in the city’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. The incident sparked protests across the country.
The Supreme Court had earlier directed the website Wikipedia to remove the victim’s name and photograph from its page about the incident. The court was initially told that Wikipedia had refused to delete the information, saying they could not be censored.
After the solicitor general said that Indian law required the identity of any rape victim to be kept anonymous, Wikipedia was directed to comply with the court’s order to remove the victim’s identifiers from social media.
On Monday, the bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud asked the court-appointed National Task Force to present an interim report at the next hearing on October 14. The committee has been tasked with suggesting steps to make workplaces safer for medical professionals.
This came a day after junior doctors who were protesting against the rape and murder of their colleague threatened to resume their demonstration after a mob allegedly attacked medics at a state-run hospital in North 24 Parganas district.
The bench also noted that the Central Bureau of Investigation had gathered substantial leads in its investigation of the alleged rape and murder. Chandrachud, however, cautioned against publicising this information on the grounds that it could hinder the investigation.
Also read: Have the Kolkata rape-murder protests dented Mamata’s women support base?
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