Revealing identity of rape victim
2 years ago
When I filed a complaint recently, the accused have told the police that I am previous rape victim and tried to portray me as having loose morals or that it is my hobby to file cases. I have been disgraced in front of the police as all the police officials are asking me about my previous case now. They have shown newspaper interview of the accused in previous case where he is saying that it is a false case. That case is in trial and there is no credibility in the accused's claims of it being false. However now they have submitted the same newspaper interview to the court in their bail application and now my identity as a rape victim is available to anybody in the court who can access the bail application copy. They have also been telling lawyers personally about it but I don't have any evidence for that. All of this has caused me a lot of embarrassment as I am having to explain my innocence and the previous case to many people now because they revealed it. What can I do about this?
Ankur Goel @ Complete Law Shield
Responded 2 years ago
But their lawyer have to submit copies of your previous case and there was no need of newspaper.
Recently I had a case where the girl was in habit of getting raped every 6 months for last 3 years and filed multiple cases in different police stations.
After the rape victims identity is kept hidden the women are taking advantage of it to file multiple cases. So Till now there was serial rapist but now there are serial Rape-Victims.
You can not run away from your previous cases.
Now your all previous cases will come out slowly in court.
You may immediately approach High Court and get an direction to the Investigation Officer, to the Accused and to the Lower Courts not to disclose your identity in any manner. If you want you can get issue a legal notice claiming compensation for such mental torture.
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Ayantika Mondal @ Prime Legal
Responded 2 years ago
According to section 228A of Indian penal code, whosoever prints or publishes the name or any matter which may make know the indentity of any person against whom an offence under section 376, 376A-D is alleged or found out to be committed shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two year and shall be liable to fine.
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You could file a complaint against the person revealing your identity as a rape victim under section 228A of Indian Penal Code. It's against the law to reveal the Identity of a Rape Victim.
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Lucem Leg
Responded 2 years ago
A.Dear Mam,
Kindly share the details regarding what previous case police officials are talking about to you and other people. As it is against law, that rape victims details are not allowed to be disclosed by any police officials. You can move to the court regarding the harassment done with you by the police officials and court will take action against them and also ask the court to change the IO (Investigating Officer) of your case if you are not comfortable and you believe that she is not doing fair investigation.
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