Case Against Raghunandan Rao For Rape Survivor Pics

The Hyderabad police on Tuesday registered a case against Dubbak MLA and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Madhavaneni Raghunandan Rao for revealing photographs and videos related to the minor girl who was gang-raped by five boys in a car on May 28.

The case was registered at the Abids police station under Section 228 A (disclosure of identity of a rape victim) based on a complaint filed by an advocate Karam Komireddy on Monday night.

The FIR said that the BJP MLA had addressed a press conference at the BJP state office in Abids on the issue of the teenager's gang rape in Jubilee Hills, where he released photographs and videos related to the incident to the media that revealed the minor's identity, while the investigation was in progress.

"The MLA interfered in the administration of justice and caused the character assassination of the survivor, and might have caused the minor a lot of distress," an Abids PS SI quoted the complainant as saying, and added that the case was hence registered.

In a statement, Komireddy said that it was only after the MLA's press conference that the photos and videos of the survivor went viral on the social media.

"Rao's disclosures to the media were against the directions of the Supreme Court, and also violate Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, which prohibits the disclosure of a child's identity in any form of media, and Section 23 of the POCSO Act, 2012, which states that no information/photo of a child should be published in any form of media," he said.