Boys Locker Room: Delhi Teens’ Chat On ‘Gang-Raping Girls’ Leaked
“I will come whenever you say. We will gang rape her”– the boys reportedly discussed on ‘Bois Locker Room’ group.
An Instagram chat group called ‘Bois Locker Room’, with hundreds of boys from south Delhi, was allegedly used for sharing photos of underage girls, objectifying them, and promoting rape culture, revealed a user on Twitter on Sunday, 3 May.
A day later on Monday, a Delhi schoolboy was taken into custody by the police. “We have apprehended one minor boy last night in this case,” a Delhi Police source told The Quint. The Delhi Police (Crime Branch Cell) had taken cognisance of the matter and have filed a case under the Information Technology Act on the basis of social media posts.
The boys allegedly shared morphed photos of underage girls, body shaming and slut shaming them on the group chat.
In a separate incident, another screenshot that has gone viral claimed that underage boys were ‘planning gang rape’ and had made other such crude statements. Messages promoting rape culture, like “We can rape her easily” and “I will come whenever you say. We will gang rape her”, were allegedly discussed on the Snapchat group. The Quint is unable to independently verify this claim.
A screenshot of the ‘Bois Locker Room’ chat group was shared by a south Delhi girl on Twitter. “A group of south delhi guys aged 17-18 types have this ig gc named ‘boy's locker room’ where they shit on, objectify and morph pictures of girls their age. 2 boys from my school are a part of it. MY FRIENDS AND I ARE FREAKING OUT THIS IS SO EWWW AND NOW MY MOM WANTS ME TO QUIT IG (sic),” she wrote.
The boys allegedly shared morphed photos of underage girls, body shaming and slut shaming them.
Meanwhile, screenshots of ‘Girls Locker Room’, where girls allegedly shared photos and body-shamed boys has also gone viral on social media.
Morphing photos and sharing images of people’s private parts would be a violation of Section 66E of the IT Act, as well as Section 354C (voyeurism) of the Indian Penal Code.
As the screenshot became viral, members of the group reportedly changed their user name. Meanwhile, a new Instagram page ‘Bois Locker Room 2.0’ has been created.
All India Mahila Congress demanded that the Centre looks into the allegations, adding that cyber crimes against women have increased during the lockdown.
Not The First Incident
In December 2019, a top ranked school in Mumbai suspended eight boys, aged 13 and 14, for making violent and sexually explicit remarks about their female classmates on a WhatsApp group.
According to The Mumbai Mirror, the transcripts of the chat – which ran over a 100 pages – revealed that the boys were body shaming the girls and used words like 'gang bang' and ‘rape.’ Homosexuality was ridiculed – and the classmates were poked fun of as ‘gays and lesbians’.
Throughout the chat, girl students were reportedly referred to as ‘trash’. The matter came to light when two mothers took it up with the school authorities, after their girl children refused to attend school.
Boys Will Be Boys? No Thanks, Say Twitter Users
Calling the ‘Bois Locker Room’ chats “straight up sexual harassment,” several Twitter users called for action against the boys. They also said that the behaviour stems from toxic masculinity under the garb of tropes like “boys will be boys.”
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