The Hyderabad police on Tuesday registered a case against Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Dubbak Madhavaneni Raghunandan Rao for revealing the photographs and videos related to the minor girl, who was gang-raped by five boys in a car on May 28.
The case was registered at Abids police station under Section 228 A (disclosure of identity of a rape victim) based on a complaint filed by an advocate Karam Komireddy on Monday night.
The FIR said the BJP MLA addressed a press conference at the BJP state office, Abids, on the issue of a teenager’s gang rape at Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad.
“Raghunandan Rao released photographs and videos related to the incident to the media that revealed the minor victim’s identity, while the investigation is in progress. It shows the MLA is interfering in the administration of justice and character assassination of the victim and it might have caused the minor victim a lot of distress,” the SI said, quoting the complainant, adding that the case was, hence, registered.
In a statement, Komireddy said it was only after the MLA’s press conference had the photos and videos of the victim went viral on social media.
“Rao’s disclosures to the media were against the directions of the Supreme Court and also Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, which prohibits the disclosure of a child’s identity in any form of media and Section 23 of the POCSO Act, 2012, which states that no information/photo of a child should be published in any form of media,” he said.
The advocate said he had also filed a similar complaint with National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Telangana State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, besides the top police officials of the state.