Tanvi Pilane
Published on: Monday 7, 2022 at 13:39 IST
A Writ Petition has been filed in the Supreme Court for the formulation of a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) by the Police to Evaluate the impact of Pornographic Material during the investigation of cases of Sexual Violence. There has been an alarming increase recently in cases of Sexual Violence in many parts of the Country.
Nalin Kohli, the Petitioner, in his plea has contended that in order to tackle the menace of Crimes against Women and Children, it is necessary to formulate Procedures and Guidelines that will enable the authorities to take steps to curb such crimes.
The Plea states, “It is not surprising that News Articles, as well as Police Investigations on Rape and Murder, are increasingly pointing towards the existence of a link between watching Pornographic Content and/ or Sexually Explicit content particularly of a violent/non-consensual nature that appears to have acted as a stimulus for committing rape and/or sexual assault, and thereafter even murder, in an attempt to Eliminate Evidence”
The Petition also refers to a recent investigation by the Assam Police of Nagaon in which it was established that the four accused in the murder of a 6-year-old girl were porn addicts.
The Plea also mentions, “As a consequence of this, the Assam Police has issued Guidelines to be followed by the I.O.S for collecting Digital Evidence while investigating offenses.”
“There is an urgent need for qualitative data to be collated and analysed by a specialized agency such as the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) that enumerates the various factors leading to the increasing incidents of Rape and Sexual assault and specifically focusing on the link between viewing pornographic material and the sexual assault and rape against women and children”, the plea states.
To confirm a link between acts of sexual violence and rape, the Petition also seeks for the issue of directions to the authorities of all State Police Organizations to collect regarding the same in a time-bound manner.
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