Bois Locker Room: Delhi HC Directs Cyber Cell of Delhi Police To Complete Investigation Expeditiously

While disposing of the petition, the Division Bench of Justice Siddharth Mridul and Justice Talwant Singh further directed the police to take measures to ensure safety and security of the complainants.

The order has come in a writ petition seeking for immediate arrest of all the members of the Instagram group "Bois Locker Room" and for directions for investigation into the same through the SIT or CBI.

The petition, filed by Advocate-on-Record Omprakash Parihar and Dushyant Tiwari on behalf of Dev Ashish Dubey, refers to a series of screenshots which were posted on social media platforms and exposed a group chat on Instagram wherein members of the group, majorly comprising of school-going boys, discussed methods of sexual assault against minor girls and circulated their pictures without their consent.

While the Delhi Commission for Women took suo moto cognizance of the matter and issued notices to Instagram as well as the police, the plea submits that the direction is not sufficient and there exists a need for investigation by the SIT or the CBI as the students belong to affluent families and they might influence the local police.

The petition goes on to aver that the members of the group have allegedly deactivated their social media accounts and have threatened to leak explicit photos and hack the accounts of the women who have exposed the group chat. Therefore, there exists an apprehension that the girls who have brought the incident to light, might suffer and thus, it is necessary to take strict action against the members of the chat.

"One of the post states that, "Let's post nude photos of all girls who posted stories about us. I have photos of some of them. Now they will know the result of their shenanigans. They will shut their mouth. They want to be feminists na…they will not be able to show their face in public".

It is further submitted that the offences committed by the students amount to violation of various laws such as Section 66E of the Information Technology Act and Section 354C of the Indian Penal Code as well as Section 507, Section 509 and Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code.

The petition concludes with the ground that

"the action of these students shows the mindset of the young generation towards the girls and if it is not stopped at this time and these people are not punished at this time, so it will lead to create lot of issues and increase of crime against the girls and women in the future time".