File picture of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court today asked the Centre to crackdown on rape videos uploaded to social networking websites, especially those involving children. The court issued notices to the Information Technology Ministry and Home Ministry seeking their responses on how these videos can be removed and how a common nodal agency can be set up to deal with them.
Hearing a petition filed by a nongovernmental organisation Prajwala, the court asked the Centre to frame measures to bring such videos shared on sites like YouTube and Facebook.
Dr Sunita Krishnan, founder of the group, told the court that she has around 90 such videos sent by various people and she 'didn't know what to do with it and where to complain'.
She said a nodal agency be set up so that such crimes are reported to that agency which can take action and punish the offenders.
"The offence of rape was being committed with impunity and the offenders had the audacity to video record the crime and put it in the public domain. This has a negative impact on the criminal justice system," she said.
Justices Madan B Lokur and Uday Lalit, who were ruling over the petition, told the Centre that it must start crackdown and have these videos removed. They noted the government has powers under to arrest the offenders under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.