Delhi rape telecast: Cops bid to put lid on revelations

New Delhi, Jan 5: The speed with which the Delhi Police lodged a case against Zee News channel for revealing the identity of the gangrape victim by carrying an interview of her friend is intriguing. It makes one search for motives behind the police action. A plausible reason could be more political than anything else.

It also shows the misplaced zeal and motivated governance, which is very alarming. The police force in the country, especially Andhra Pradesh cops, ignored for days the highly provocative speech of its MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi but acted against a media house within hours of broadcast.

Even the speech of Owaisi was telecast but it was not fit to be taken for investigation because there was no political will or pressure to act.

However, in the case of Zee channel, the political masters want to act and send message to the media houses to desist from supporting the public cause and civil society movement. The graphic account of the incident and the callousness of the police as told by the friend of the victim will add fuel to public anger over the death of the girl and the government action seems to be in the direction of putting a lid on further revelations.

Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said that the case against Zee will be filed at the Vasant Vihar Police Station under Section 228 (A) of the Indian Penal Code, which pertains to disclosure of identity of victims of certain offences, including rape.

In an interview to the television channel, the person severely criticised the time taken by the police to respond and the indifference of the public while he and the girl lay on the road after being thrown out of the bus.

The social media is buzzing with abuses for Delhi Police because of their conduct and on the twitter trend it is at number two. Here are few tweets:

Preeti Bakaya ‏(@PreetiBChopra): Wow Delhi Police takes less than an hr for filing FIR against Zee! They made my 68 yr old Dad wait for 6 hrs for filing FIR for his lost car.

Mohitsatyanand (‏@mohitsatyanand) : Delhi Police suing Zee, warning us all that it will not tolerate any public airing of complaints against its functioning.

Rini Basu (‏@rinib1) : Now Delhi Police will harass and make his (Delhi girl's friends) life miserable ..since he exposed Delhi Police.

Pallabi Dowerah ‏(@iPallabiDowerah) : Case should be on CM, HM and Delhi Police , not on ZEE .We should have a mechanism to lodge online FIR or can raise any incident.

Bhanudas nadpurohit ‏(@Nadpurohit) : Delhi police file case against Zee. Govt trying to muzzle media. UPA's democratic credentials a natak. R we slowly sliding into dictatorship.

Arun srivastava ‏(@arnrr) : Beware!! Delhi Police may book all those who watched young man's interview....Emergency is coming.

Kapil Mishra ‏(@Youth4justice) : TRUTH - criminals hv no fear of Delhi Police and common man is too fearful to help.

OneIndia News