In short, the Aam Aadmi Party’s top man in the capital has been booked by the police over the alleged unmasking of a three-year-old from a west Delhi school. It is a move that puts this delicate investigation in a more contentious light, with the police making a point of the law on the matter.
What you need to know about the FIR
One of the officers put it on record on Tuesday: a case was put in at Janakpuri station under Section 72 of the BNS for putting a victim’s name out there. They have also called in the Juvenile Justice Act and POCSO to back it up.
The crux of it is the minor survivor’s identity being made public, something the force says is not allowed. This is a case of its own, coming on the heels of some earlier arrests in the school matter.
A look at the school case
We’re told a 57-year-old on the staff of a private school in west Delhi is the one who assaulted a little girl. The whole thing was set in motion on May 1 when the mother went to the police and the accused was taken in.
The story goes like this: the child was at school on April 30, her second day in fact. When she got home and said she was in pain, her mother asked what happened. The girl is said to have told her a staff member had lured her to a quiet spot and done it to her. As they dug in, they also made an example of a female teacher and arrested her.
How the other side is reading it
Bhardwaj, for his part, has had his say on X: ‘BJP’s Central Govt has filed one more FIR against me for disclosing the name of a school in the rape case of 3-year-old girl.’ He is, after all, the head of the party in Delhi.
On the law
You can find the police referring to Section 72 of the BNS, as well as the Juvenile and POCSO acts. Their line is simple: you don’t reveal the details of a minor and get away with it.
Here is where things stand per the police and the complaint:
– An FIR is now on file at Janakpuri against Bhardwaj
– They are using Section 72 of the BNS
– Have also brought in POCSO and Juvenile Justice rules
– Mother made the report on the 1st of May
– The child was in school the day before, on the 30th
– 57-year-old on the staff is in custody
– A woman teacher was also cuffed later on
– All hinged on the claim that the minor’s identity was let out
Where do we go from here?
Now that there is a case for the disclosure, the field has opened up in both the political and legal sense. But the original case from the school, the one that led to the arrests, is still the one driving the process to see how a child’s privacy is handled.
