Delhi rape victim’s father says didn’t allow UK daily to name daughter

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: The father of the gang-rape victim has now denied allowing a British newspaper to reveal his daughter’s name. Her identity should be made public only if a law was named after her, he told Hindustan Times. The horrific incident, which took place in a moving bus on December 16, has fuelled widespread protests in India, with demonstrators and security forces clashing in Delhi. Also, the case gained enormous attention across the world, with international media covering the incident prominently. Notably, the Indian media has refrained from naming her. Yesterday, British publication "The Sunday People" published an interview of the father of the victim in which he was quoted as saying: "We want the world to know her real name. My daughter didn`t do anything wrong, she died while protecting herself." "I am proud of her. Revealing her name will give courage to other women who have survived these attacks. They will find strength from my daughter," her father was quoted as saying. The newspaper posted the father`s picture with his name. It then revealed the victim`s name, saying it had the permission of the father. The father showed the family album with photographs of his daughter smiling. While in some photographs she was wearing traditional saree, in others she was mostly in western clothes. The newspaper said in deference to the father`s wish not to make public her picture, it was not doing so. However, HT later quoted the father as saying, "I have only said we won`t have any objection if the government uses my daughter`s name for a new law for crime against women that is more stringent and better framed that the existing one." The Indian law forbids revealing of the name of a rape victim unless her family agrees to it. The 23-year-old woman was raped and tortured in a moving bus by a gang of six men on December 16. She died in a Singapore hospital on December 29.