Naming Bhandara rape victims: Shinde withdraws statement, orders enquiry

Just a day after the Finance minister presented us with the so-called ‘women friendly’ budget and vowed to provide security to women, our Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde named the three minor girls who were raped and murdered in Maharashtra while reading out his statement in Parliament. The names of the three minor girls had to be expunged after Shinde identified them in the Rajya Sabha, attracting the ire of the opposition BJP. Shinde later withdrew the statement and said, “I have withdrawn the statement. Rajya Sabha Chairman has also withdrawn the statement. Have asked the secretary to conduct an enquiry into the matter.” [caption id=“attachment_645148” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reuters[/caption] Shinde read out a statement on the gruesome incident in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district where three minor sisters were kidnapped, raped and murdered last month. The three sisters aged 6, 8 and 11 had gone missing on the afternoon of 14 February. Their bodies were found in a well barely two kilometres from their house on 16 February . Preliminary post-mortem had confirmed that the girls were raped before being murdered. Two weeks later, the police has more questions than answers. The girls were neither strangled to death, nor were they poisoned. Even the medical analysis so far has failed to pin point the exact cause of death. According to some villagers, they were last seen in a Maruti van. But the Police still have no clue who was in it and to whom it belonged. Shinde named all the rape victims, which according to the law is prohibited. The matter was raised by leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, who said he shouldn’t have named Bhandara rape victims. “As per the Criminal Law Ordinance 2013, the identity of rape victims is never to be revealed. However, the home minister in paragraph two has given names of all the three victims,” Jaitley said. “The whole house is discussing the issue. Home minister should consider this fact and withdraw the statement and have it corrected and place it again at 2pm,” he said. Deputy chairman PJ Kurien ordered that the names be expunged. “It is a very important matter and it (names) should be treated as expunged and media should also not use the names in any reports else action will be taken,” said Kurien. With inputs from Agencies