Srinagar, Mar 31: District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) Kupwara Friday directed the media and general public to stop revealing the identity and other incidental details of a minor girl whose throat-slit body was recovered by Police hours after she went missing from her home at Lolab in Kupwara district earlier this week.
In an order, the DLSA warned that the violators would be booked under the law.
The authority has also impressed upon Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kupwara to look into the matter and take every necessary step to prevent disclosure of the name and pictures of the victim being published without proper permission of the family or the competent authority.
“On March 29, 2023, district Kupwara witnessed a heinous crime whereby a body of a minor girl (name withheld) aged 7 years was recovered under the circumstances which Police believe is a homicide. This office has come to know that Police has already taken cognisance in the matter and registered an FIR under relevant sections of law at Police Station Lalpora,” the DLSA said.
The authority said that it had been noticed that media and general public were circulating the information like name of the victim and other incidental details of the victim insensitively or casually on the internet, causing anger and fury among the masses and recurring pain to the family of the victim.
“Since the investigation is at an initial stage, thus disclosing the name and pictures of the victim perils the sensitivity of investigation and is a violation of the right to privacy of the victim and her family and has every possibility to create law and order problems in the village,” it said.
The DLSA said that the media and general public was informed to stop revealing the identity of the victim, failing which the violators would be booked under the law.
“Any breach already committed should be rectified by removal of the same forthwith,” the authority said. “Constrained, the SSP Kupwara is impressed upon to look into the matter and take every necessary step to prevent disclosure of the name and pictures of the victim being published without proper permission of the family or the competent authority.”
It said that to assist and coordinate with Police and victim’s family it had already deputed a team of para-legal volunteers headed by a panel lawyer who would visit the home of the victim and inform them about legal aid and offer to represent their case.
The DLSA said that the team would intimate them about the victim compensation scheme, which would be sanctioned in due course of time for which documentation was already being processed.