Sanjayanagar police have booked a blogger for revealing the identity of an alleged sexual abuse victim.
The controversial blog had been posted online on June 17, 2012, allegedly by Vineet Khare, said to be a Delhi-based journalist.
Pascal Mazurier, an employee of the French Consulate in the City and standing trial on the charge of sexually assaulting his four-year-old daughter last year, lodged a complaint with the Sanjayanagar police in this regard on August 24. Mazurier, who is out on bail, in his complaint – a copy of which is with Deccan Herald – has stated that he came across the particular blog post while googling the full name of his daughter.
Mazurier claimed that the post was a verbatim account of the letter his wife Suja Jones had supposedly written to the Ambassador of France in New Delhi on June 14, 2012, the day she lodged a police complaint against him for allegedly sexually assaulting their child.
The letter, a supposed private correspondence between Suja Jones and the French ambassador, does mention the name of the victim. By posting the letter in the blog, the blogger has disclosed the identity of the victim of rape, a minor.
Punishable offence
This is a punishable offence under Section 228A of the Indian Penal Code for disclosure of identity of the victim of certain offences which reads: “Whoever prints or publishes the name or any matter which may make known the identity of any person against whom an offence under Section 376, Section 376A, Section 376B, Section 376C or Section 376D, is alleged or found to have been committed (hereafter in this Section referred to as the victim) shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years and shall also be liable to fine.”
A case has also been registered under Section 23 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012.
Cyber crime division
Sanjayanagar police have referred the case to the cyber crime division of the Criminal Investigation Department.
Sandeep Patil, DCP (North), said the police were expecting a report from the cyber crime cell in a day or two, and after they received it, they would proceed with further action against the blogger.
Mazurier has also made allegations against his wife Suja Jones in the complaint. “I strongly suspect that Mr Vineet Khare has acted after receiving instructions from Mrs Suja Jones Mazurier... I suspect that Mrs Suja Jones Mazurier has found an accomplice in the person of Mr Vineet Khare.”
He has requested the police to investigate the link between Khare and his wife.
A senior officer handling the investigation told Deccan Herald that he would inquire into whether it was Suja Jones who provided the letter to the blogger, and if found so, police would be forced to make her a second accused in the case.
The first information report, however, does not list Suja Jones as an accused in the case.
Suja Jones told Deccan Herald that the letter published in the blog post in her name was fake and that she never sent such a missive to the French ambassador in June last year.
She claimed she did not know who Khare was and that she never communicated with him.