A police complaint has been filed against actors Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, Ravi Teja, Rakul Preet Singh, Allu Sirish, Charmme Kaur, Anupam Kher, Farhan Akhtar, and several other film celebrities for revealing the real name of a rape victim on social media.
Times of India reports that a Delhi-based lawyer, Gaurav Gulati, has filed the complaint against 38 celebrities at Delhi’s Sabzi Mandi Police Station under IPC section 228 A.
Gulati has also filed a petition in Tees Hazari Court, alleging that these celebrities were not being responsible citizens.
The report states that Gulati has accused the celebrities of revealing the name of the rape victim despite Indian law prohibiting the act. He has reportedly sought the immediate arrest of all those named in his complaint, alleging that they have shown no social responsibility about maintaining the privacy of the victim.
On November 27, 2019, a Hyderabad-based veterinarian was abducted by four people from a toll plaza on Outer Ring Road in Cyberabad. A day later, her charred body was found at an underpass in Shadnagar. On December 6, the Cyberabad police gunned down the four accused in the case after they allegedly attempted to flee during a reconstruction of the crime scene.
The horrific incident had prompted several on Twitter, including celebrities, to condemn the issue.
Actors like Swara Bhasker, Abhishek Bachchan, Richa Chadha, Dia Mirza, Pooja Hegde, and several others, had spoken up about the incident and demanded justice.
While it is forbidden by Indian law to disclose the identity of a rape victim, many of the celebrities had used the real name of the Hyderabad rape victim when expressing outrage over the incident on social media.
Recommended
In 2018 the Supreme Court had placed a bar on disclosing the name and identity of a sexual assault victim. “No person can print or publish in print, electronic, social media, etc, the name of the victim or even in a remote manner disclose any facts which can lead to the victim being identified,” the bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta had ruled. “The bar extends to anything which can even remotely be used to identify the victim,” the judges (now retired) had said.
Silverscreen India has reached out to Gulati for further information on his complaint.