Even morphed photo of child rape victims should not be used: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday observed that even morphed picture of child rape victims should not be published. The court made the observation while expressing concern over the identity of child rape victims being revealed by print and electronic media.

Taking suo motu cognisance of the issue, the apex court on Thursday restrained the media from telecasting images and videos of minor rape victims even in morphed form. 

The court also took suo motu cognisance of the case of alleged rapes of minor girls in a shelter home run in Bihar. The court issued notices to the Bihar government and Centre in connection with the case.

More than 40 girls had been lodged at a shelter home run by an NGO in Bihar. Medical reports of the girls suggest that most of them may have been subjected to sexual intercourse at some point in time. The NGO running the shelter home has been blacklisted and all the girls have been moved to shelter homes in other districts while the premises has been sealed.

Following the incident, Bihar Governor Satya Pal Malik had written to the state and the Central government seeking strict action against all shelter homes indulged in wrongdoing. In his letter, the Governor made reference to the Muzaffarpur shelter home sexual abuse case and asked for monitoring of all shelter homes in Bihar, seeking strict against those found guilty. Two shelter homes, run by the same owner, Brijesh Thakur, have come under scanner in Muzaffarpur where at least 34 girls have allegedly been raped in one shelter home, and 11 women had gone missing from the other.