MP home minister reveals minor rape victim’s name on Twitter, regrets ‘error’

Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhupendra Singh on Tuesday apologised on Twitter after he made the name of a minor rape and murder victim public on the social media platform.

Singh tweeted on Monday evening that a complaint regarding the rape and murder of a Class 7 student at Sundrel village in Dewas district was received by the police in November. He added that instructions were issued to the police to take prompt action in the case. The accused Lokesh was arrested and sent to jail.

However, the home minister also revealed the name of the minor girl in his tweet. The identity of a rape victim cannot be disclosed and those guilty of doing so face punishment under section 228-A of the Indian Penal Code.

Singh later deleted his tweet.

He tweeted his regret after the screenshot of his post went viral on social media. The minister said in his tweet on Tuesday that his ministry runs a separate public grievance cell to redress the grievances of people through social media.

“Isi cell k eek karmachari ne trutivash peedit balika ka naam sarvjanik kar diya. Uss karmachari ko tatkaal cell se hata diya gaya hai. Mujhe is truti ke liye khed hai (An employee of the cell revealed the name of the victim inadvertently. The employee was immediately removed from the cell. I regret the error),” Singh wrote.

The 12-year-old girl was found dead in a semi-naked state in an agriculture field outside her village on November 5. She had stepped out of her house in the evening on November 4 to give tea to her father working in his field.

The autopsy report suggested that she was raped before being killed.

Madhya Pradesh topped again the crime chart of the country on rapes as per National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB) 2016 report which was made public recently.