The Supreme Court Friday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to undertake investigation into the two rape videos that were posted on WhatsApp but nothing has been done so far to apprehend the perpetrators of the crime.
Taking suo motu cognizance of a letter sent by Hyderabad-based NGO Prajwala, the social justice bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said: "This is a very serious issue and something needs to be done".
Noting that the NGO in its letter has sought CBI probe into the matter, the court directed the CBI director to forthwith register the case and start investigations.
Prajwala had also sent two video in a pen drive showing a man raping a woman and another man filming it. The video, which is four to five minutes long, was sent along with a letter addressed to the Chief Justice of India H.L.Dattu.
The second video which runs for 8.5 minutes shows the girl being gang rapped by five people and the perpetrators of crime smiling, cracking jokes, making video and taking photos as they went about sexually assaulting her.
Besides ordering a CBI probe, the court issued notice to the central and the Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Telengana and Delhi governments. it said a proper petition would be filed on March 9 as it directed the next hearing of the matter on March 13.
Telengana was issued notice after court was told that the car belonging to the NGO was attacked after the NGO launched a 'Shame the Rapist' campaign on social networking sites.
The court, while issuing notice to the central government through the union home and the communication and IT ministries asked the home ministry to forward the pen drive/DVD to the CBI Director for investigations forthwith.