'Fake' photo of Delhi rape victim goes viral
INDIA: The father of a student in south India has complained to
police after Internet users circulated a photo of his daughter on social
media claiming it was the Delhi gang-rape victim, officers said Friday.
A picture tribute to the dead Delhi woman, who was repeatedly raped
on a moving bus on December 16 and thrown out of the vehicle in a crime
that appalled the nation, has gone viral on Facebook.
Her name and identity have been withheld by police and the media in
line with a law that entitles victims of sex crime and their families to
anonymity to protect them from social stigma.
Vinayakumar, an assistant commissioner in the cyber crime unit of
Kerala police in south India, said that the photo used in the Facebook
tribute was a fake and had caused distress.
"We have received a complaint from the father stating that the
photograph uploaded on Facebook as the Delhi rape victim picture was
fake," the officer, who goes by one name, told AFP. "The picture used
was his daughter's photograph uploaded with her Facebook profile. We
have directed Facebook officials to delete the photograph and help us to
track the culprits," he added.
The brutal gang-rape of the 23-year-old medical student in New Delhi
on December 16 has led to a bout of national soul-searching over the
treatment of women in Indian society and provoked daily protests.
AFP |