Even as police arrested a schoolboy for his alleged role in the “Bois Locker Room” scandal, a boy student of class 12 and a resident of the Tony Carlton Estate apartments in Gurgaon leapt to his death from the balcony of his flat on 11th floor late on Tuesday after he was accused by a girl of molestation on social media.
The police is investigating the role of the dead boy in the controversial Instagram group wherein members, all boys aged 18 and below exchange pictures and notes of classmates and other girls with serial innuendo suggesting even rape. His phone has been seized by the police and has been sent to forensic lab for analysis. Cyber crime cell has also been involved to investigate his social media accounts. He has not left any suicide note.
Recently, social media was full of details of an Instagram chat group comprising of boys that discussed ‘gang-raping’ girls in a group called ‘Bois Locker Room’ (Bois, being a spin on the word ‘boys’). The leaked photos of the “Bois Locker Room” (Boys Locker Room) Instagram group had kicked up a storm over the normalisation of rape culture in the country. The group allegedly ran by teenage boys, involved graphic sexualisation and sharing of private photos of underage girls, objectifying them and planning gang-rapes with minor girls.
Meanwhile, a 15-year-old boy was apprehended for allegedly sharing a picture of one of his followers on the ‘Bois Locker Room’ Instagram group, the Delhi Police Cyber Crime Cell (CCC) questioned five students, between classes X and XII of prominent South Delhi schools, for around six hours in front of their parents on Tuesday.
They have also issued notices to 21 other members of the group, asking them to join the probe in the coming days. Soon after the chats of the ‘Bois Locker Room’ went viral, screenshots of ‘Girls Locker Room’ were allegedly leaked which showed voyeuristic chats between teenaged and presumably under aged girls.
Besides sexualising and objectifying men, several screenshots of the girls’ version of Locker Room leaked on Twitter reveal that not just boys but girls are also active partakers in perpetuating body-shaming and making sexually explicit remarks.
-India Legal Bureau