New Delhi, Nov 29 (IANS) Coming down heavily on the Delhi Police for ‘ill-treating’ rape victims, especially minors, the Delhi High Court asked the police to explain why they had not registered a complaint of the sexual assault of a 12-year-girl earlier this month.

The court on its own took notice of the criminal sexual assault on the 12-year-old girl by her two neighbours in a moving car in Palam, near the Indira Gandhi International Airport, earlier this month.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar said: ‘Is this the way our guidelines are followed? Do you (police) realise that delays in registering the complaint results in a delay in the investigation?’

The court had, in its earlier orders, asked police to register the first information report (FIR) immediately after receiving a complaint and depute a woman officer to deal with the victim of a sexual crime.

In this case, police initially refused to register the complaint as it would bring a bad name to the family and only acted after the media stepped in and reported the matter.

‘We want to know if our earlier orders are being followed or not,’ the bench said earlier this week while seeking the response of police and hospitals by Dec 9.

The court also asked its registrar general to file a status report within two weeks on whether directions of the court are being complied with or not.

According to the court guidelines issued earlier, a friendly atmosphere should be created for the rape victims during recording of their evidence and their parents or guardians allowed to be present.

‘The child victim (of rape) shall not be separated from her parents/guardians on the ground of ascertaining the voluntary nature of statement,’ the court said.

In a case of rape involving minors, the court had also directed the police to video record the statement of the victim.