HC notice to media houses for disclosing Kathua victim's identity

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today issued notices to several media houses for disclosing the identity of the eight-year-old girl who was gangraped and killed in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua district. A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, which took up the issue on its own after coming across print and electronic media reports, sought a response from the media houses, asking why action should not be taken against them on the matter.

The girl from the nomadic Bakerwal Muslim community had disappeared from near her home in the forests next to Rasana village in Kathua, 90 km from here, on January 10. A week later, her body was found in the same area.

The state police Crime Branch, which probed the case, filed a main chargesheet against seven accused persons and a separate chargesheet against a juvenile in a court in Kathua district earlier this week.

The chargesheet revealed chilling details about how the girl was allegedly kidnapped, drugged, raped inside a place of worship before being killed.