Rahul Gandhi remained locked out of his Twitter account for a sixth day on Wednesday for tweeting photographs of himself with the parents of a nine-year-old Dalit girl who had died under suspicious circumstances in Delhi last week.

The child’s death had triggered allegations of rape, following which police registered a rape case. No conclusive evidence from the forensic examination has emerged so far because the body of the child had been burned.

Replying to questions from The Telegraph, Twitter indicated that Rahul would remain locked out until he deleted the tweet.

The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) asked Twitter to remove the tweet, saying it revealed the child’s identity in violation of two laws meant to protect children.

Tweets by former BJP MP Anju Bala, a member of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, and a tweet from the commission itself with images of the parents did not elicit a similar response from the child rights panel.

Twitter hid all these tweets but did not lock out the Scheduled Castes panel or Bala.

On Wednesday, Twitter locked the accounts of multiple Congress leaders, including Ajay Maken and Randeep Surjewala. Some of them had tweeted that Twitter India was “extremely fearful of the Modi government” and Rahul was singled out.

In response to this newspaper’s questions on the differential treatment of Rahul and those sympathetic to the government, Twitter said in a statement: “As explained in our Help Center, if a Tweet was found to be in violation of the Twitter Rules, and has yet to be deleted by the account holder, we hide it behind a notice and the account remains locked until the Tweet is removed or the appeal is successfully processed.

“We have also taken action on several other Tweets that posted the same image and will continue to do so if the content is shared. Our aim is to protect individuals from coming to physical harm as a result of their information being shared on Twitter and certain types of private information carry higher risks than others, and can pose serious safety and security threats.

“Information shared by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in their legal request submitted via the India Grievance Channel citing specific provisions of the Pocso Act, provided context and was taken into account for the assessment.”

On Wednesday evening, the tweets by Bala and the SC commission could not be found on their Twitter accounts.

Twitter’s response did not answer questions seeking the specific rule under which Rahul has been locked out and asking how long he would be kept out.

The Congress has said that “due process” is being followed for restoration.

Party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate had told reporters on Sunday: “Can you imagine how traumatising that must be and somebody who wants to stand with that family and ensure justice, you drop his tweet and block his account, so to Twitter I will say, ‘Daro mat, ye dara nahin sakte humein (Don’t be afraid, they can’t scare us).”

In 2018, the Supreme Court had ruled: “…No person can print or publish the name of the (rape) victim or disclose any facts which can lead to the victim being identified.”

Violation is punishable with a jail term of up to six months.

In Delhi High Court on Wednesday, the bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh refused to issue a notice on a public interest petition seeking an FIR against Rahul for allegedly revealing the girl’s identity.

PTI quoted Twitter counsel Sajan Poovaya as saying: “The account has been locked and the tweet is not available.”

Satisfied with his response, the high court rejected petitioner Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar’s demand for an affidavit by Twitter and deferred the hearing till September 27.

On August 1, the Dalit girl was hurriedly cremated by a priest and other crematorium staff who claimed she had been electrocuted while using a water cooler on their premises near Delhi Cantonment.

After protests by local Dalits, the police — who face allegations of intimidating the girl’s parents — booked four men including the crematorium priest for offences including rape and murder.

Rahul visited the protest site on August 4 and met the parents in his car, later tweeting photos of the meeting. The photos triggered a news conference by the BJP demanding action against him.