New Delhi, May 18 (IANS): The Delhi High Court, while disposing of an application seeking a CBI probe into the ‘Bois Locker Room row, on Monday directed the Cyber Crime Cell of Delhi Police to "expeditiously" conduct the probe in this regard.
After hearing both the sides via video conferencing, a division bench of the high court presided over by Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh disposed of the petition directing the police to file the final report before the concerned court as per law.
The plea filed by Dev Ashish Dubey stated that a CBI or SIT probe is required into the matter as the students involved in the incident belonged to "influential families" and could hamper the investigation by the local police.
"The entire issue needs to be investigated by the SIT or CBI as these students belong to high profile families and there is an apprehension that the investigation or enquiry conducted by the local police will be influenced and wrongdoer's will never be arrested and punished," the plea said.
The plea filed through advocates Dushyant Tiwari and Om Prakash Parihar also sought the court's direction to the Centre and Delhi governments to provide safety to the girls and women who have exposed the students, so that they cannot be harmed by the members of the "Bois Locker Room" group.
The plea further stated that the action of these students shows the mindset of the young generation towards girls and "if it is not stopped at this time and these people are not punished at this time, it will create lot of issues and increase crime against girls and women in the future."
The petitioner sought that the culprits should be punished under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 too because "the crime has been conducted against minor girls and various members of the Instagram chat group were minors."
"The group is run by and has membership of 16 to 18-year-old boys from posh schools in South Delhi, all of whom were involved in the objectification of their classmates and other women, some as young as 14. The expletive-laden chats show the boys discussing having physical relationship with their classmates," the petitioner claimed.
Dubey stated that when the leaked screenshots of the chat group went viral, many of the users of the group allegedly deactivated their social media profiles and "also allegedly threatened to leak nude photos and hack accounts of the women who had exposed them."
Leaked screenshots of the private Instagram chat group stirred up a storm after numerous boys were allegedly seen sharing photos of underage girls, objectifying them, and allegedly planning ‘gang rapes'.