A picture of the woman who was brutally murdered at Itshyrwat near NEIGRIHMS was circulating on WhatsAap from Tuesday morning. It is difficult to establish who first captured the dead woman’s picture and later circulated it on WhatsApp. Cyber crime is a weak area of policing in India. As can be expected the pictures went viral. In a death that is undeserving the woman’s privacy is violated a thousand times over. It has become a voyeuristic pursuit for some to post such pictures of brutish and horrendous crimes on social media and to camouflage it as news. Good old journalism with the ethics clearly articulated need not be followed by the instant, social media brand of journalism. The legal definition of voyeurism is the secret viewing of another person in a place where that person would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, for the purpose of the viewer’s sexual arousal.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 2013 (IPC 354C: Section 354C of the Indian Penal Code) says any man who watches, or captures the image of a woman engaging in a private act in circumstances where she would usually have the expectation of not being observed either by the perpetrator or by any other person at the behest of the perpetrator, or disseminates such image shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than one year, but which may extend to three years, and shall also be liable to fine, and be punished on a second or subsequent conviction, with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years, but which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.
While the present case may not fall under the above sections of law, there is such a thing as a moral compass that guides individuals to observe certain social obligations, especially in a society where people never speak ill of the dead. The woman in this case is being defamed in death. We wonder what sections of law can be invoked here and whether the law in itself is enough to put the brakes on social media warriors, whose own proclivities towards voyeurism as mentioned in the sections of the law above, are camouflaged by a pretence of concern. Clearly societal norms are no longer considered obligatory. Technology with its power to sting has taken over.