In a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court, Justice DN Patel, Advocates Neela Gokhale and Ilam Paridhi have stated that the seriousness and gravity of the “illegal activities” undertaken by the participants of the group, which included death and rape threats, necessitate registration of FIRs and initiation of an investigation, at the earliest, for commission of offences punishable under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, Information and Technology Act, 2008 and Indian Penal Code, 1860.
The “bois locker room” was a chat room on social media platform, Instagram. The participants of the chat room were mostly young boys, specifically from classes XI and XII from Delhi schools, who shared lewd and objectionable content pertaining to minor girls. The chat room was used to make comments and share compromising and allegedly morphed images of minor girls.
Due to the inaction on part of the investigative authorities, no real punitive action has been taken against the perpetrators and a new Instagram page ‘Bois Locker Room 2.0’ with the bio that ‘Let’s start this again, join this group with fake accounts so no one can expose u, message me the username of ur fake account’, has come into existence, it is informed.
Also Read: Letter Petition filed urging Supreme Court to take ‘Bois Locker Room’ matter on judicial side
The letter stated while urging the Court to take suo-moto cognizance of the issue,
“The mediums which were meant to lend voices even to the voiceless, cannot be permitted to offer its platform as a breeding ground for misogyny and extend all the offline sexism and objectification that prevails, online. These unprecedented ways of violence against women online need to be nipped immediately as something as simple as any chat have all the propensity to translate into sexual violence of great magnitude in no time at all. Experience has shown that actions such as victim blaming, locker room banter, rape jokes, etc. provides an impetus to rape, molestation and in some cases murder. If this incident is not taken serious note of then such normalization is likely to transform into degradation and explicit violence.”
A letter petition has also been sent through three advocates to the Supreme Court, urging it to take up the matter on the judicial side.
Read letter here:
