THE NIRBHAYA CASE - THE VICTIM

The female victim was born and raised in Delhi while her parents were from a small village in the Ballia district of Uttar Pradesh. Her father sold his agricultural land to educate her, and worked double shifts to continue to pay for her schooling. In an interview he related that as a youth he had dreamed of becoming a schoolteacher, but at that time education was not considered important and girls were not even sent to school. "Attitudes are changing back home now, but when I left 30 years ago, I vowed never deny my children so sending them to school was fulfilling my desire for knowledge."^[23] He said that he put his daughter's education above that of even his two sons. "It never entered our hearts to ever discriminate. How could I be happy if my son is happy and my daughter isn't? And it was impossible to refuse a little girl who loved going to school."^[23][24]
In compliance with Indian law, the real name of the victim was initially not released to the media, so pseudonyms were used for her by various media houses instead, including Jagruti ("awareness"), Jyoti ("flame"), Amanat ("treasure"), Nirbhaya ("fearless one"), Damini ("lightning", after the 1993 Hindi film) and Delhi braveheart.^{[25][26][27][28][29]}
The man who was attacked, a software engineer from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, who lives in Ber Sarai, New Delhi, suffered broken limbs but survived.^[30][31]
Delhi police registered a criminal case against the editor of a Delhi-based tabloid, Mail Today, for disclosing the female victim's identity, as such disclosure is an offence under section 228(A) of Indian Penal Code.[32] Shashi Tharoor, union minister, suggested that if the parents had no objection, her identity could be made public, with a view to showing respect for her courageous response by naming future laws after her, but Tharoor's remark created controversy.[33] Speaking to a British press reporter on 5 January, the victim's father 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."[34] Indian law forbids revealing the name of a rape victim unless the family agrees to it and, following the news article which published the father's reported quote and the victim's name, some news outlets in India, Germany, Australia, and the United States also revealed her name.[35] However, the following day Zee News 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 than the existing one."[36]