Girl Molested, Videotaped By 3 Friends For Breaking Up With One Of Them; All 3 Arrested
Courtesy: The Times of India, The Hindu | Image Credit: ANI/Twitter

Girl Molested, Videotaped By 3 Friends For Breaking Up With One Of Them; All 3 Arrested

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On Tuesday, September 26, three men were arrested after the Andhra Pradesh police discovered a shocking video of them attempting to gang rape a 19-year-old college student.

The video of the incident which occurred Prakasam’s Kanigiri town went viral on social media, circulating on Facebook and Whatsapp.


Background

The Times of India reported that the girl was in a relationship with the main convict, Sai (19), a B.Sc agriculture student.

When she decided to break up with him as he was only interested in her sexually, he decided to take revenge against her, said the police.

He asked to meet her in an isolated place to ‘discuss’ the relationship. Two of his friends, Karthik (22) and K Pawan (21) accompanied him. The three men tried to gang-rape her as she begged for mercy, pleading them to stop. However, the convicts continued to grope and disrobe her as Karthik captured the assault in his cell phone and shared it with his friends on social media.

She was in a relationship with Sai for over a year, before parting ways with Karthik, reported The Hindu. Karthik instigated Sai to molest her as revenge. The girl had taken another friend of hers to meet with Sai who was witness to the crime.


Arrest

The Times of India reported that the crime occurred in August but came to light after the video was circulated.

The Kangiri police invoked against the convicts Section 67 (Punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information Technology Act as also IPC sections 354A (Sexual Harassment), 354B (Act with intent to disrobe a woman) 376 (punishment for rape) read with 511 (Punishment for attempting to commit offences) IPC against the trio on a belated complaint from the parents of the girl on Sunday, September 24.

“We learnt about the incident three days ago after which we registered the case and arrested the accused. We request parents, teachers to keep a watch on the activities of their children”, said the Prakasam police, reported India Today.

Earlier in May, a similar incident was brought to light when videos emerged on social media of 14 men in Uttar Pradesh molesting two women.


The Logical Indian take

The three men sexually assaulting the woman and posting the video online points to a certain fearlessness. The criminals found it amusing to pull, push, grope and disrobe the 19-year-old. The youths’ unafraid demeanor points to the comfort provided to them by our slow justice system, lack of implementation of laws and reforms, and the widespread culture of viewing women as objects. The trio believed that she had no right to say no to their friend, hence they attempted to rape her.

Such incidents are not uncommon in India, with many of the cases even going unreported. The need of the hour is a focused approach to gender sensitisation from the grassroots level.

After the brutal gang rape of Jyoti Singh, The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2013 came into force. Two of the IPC Sections under which the three men were booked – Section 354A and 354B – were introduced by this law. In May this year, the Supreme Court also upheld the death penalty of Jyoti’s rapists. But harsh punishments can only do so much when the problem is inherent in our society. Rape and any other form of sexual violence can be curbed with education and awareness, apart from legal punishment.

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Editor : Pooja Chaudhuri

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