Minor girl blackmailed, gang raped in UP's Budaun for a year; video shared on social media

BAREILLY: A 17-year-old girl was blackmailed for nearly a year with an objectionable video, leading to gang rape by four men multiple times. When the girl did not respond to their calls, the video was spread on social media by one of the accused.

The incident was reported from a village in the Ujhani police station area of UP’s Budaun. A case of gang rape of a minor girl was registered on the victim's uncle’s complaint. The uncle submitted a complaint to the police, demanding action against the accused. Based on the complaint, the police took all the accused into custody.According to the police, a year ago, the victim went to graze goats in a field, where three youths from the village raped her while a middle-aged man from the village recorded the incident.

Later, this video fell into another person's hands. The accused continued to sexually exploit the girl by threatening to make the video viral. Recently, when the girl did not respond to their calls, they sent the video to someone else, and it has now gone viral on social media. After the video went viral, the victim revealed the entire truth to her family. Her uncle filed a complaint with the police, demanding action. The police registered a case based on the complaint and started investigating the matter.

SP City Vijendra Dwivedi said, “We examined the viral video and found that it was a year old and three men misused it for raping the minor girl on multiple occasions. We have registered an FIR under the sections of rape, Pocso, and the IT act against four persons. Three accused have been arrested by us.”A senior cop said, “The accused told police that they made a consensual relationship with the girl and she was a major. The police then verified the schooling certificate and found that she is 17 years old. At the time of the incident, she was 16 years old. The act of the accused comes under the heinous crime category and we will soon file a chargesheet against them.”(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)