Bhawanipatna: Kalahandi police Wednesday arrested seven people including a minor in connection with the gang rape of a girl September 14 inside Jaringi forest under Junagarh police station limits of Kalahandi district and subsequent distribution of the video on World Wide Web.
The gangrape accused have been identified as Amit Naik (30), Prakash Naik (22), Santa Naik (24) and a minor boy. Those arrested for spreading the video on the World Wide Web are Binod Naik (32), Tikamani Podh (32) and Swayambar Bag (30), Kalahandi SP B Gangadhar said.
All of them were produced in the court Wednesday, a source said.
The four persons, including the minor boy, were arrested on charges of gangrape while the three others were detained under the IT Act, 2000 for circulating the clip on social media.
Notably, the incident took place in the afternoon of September 14 near Junagarh, 25 km from Bhawanipatna. The police swung into action after the girl student lodged an FIR late Sunday night.
In her complaint, the woman said she had come to Bhawanipatna on some work September 14 and was waiting at the bus stand to return to Junagarh when a man known to her offered her a lift.
A group of five to six men with their faces covered stopped their vehicle and pulled her out while brandishing a knife while they were around four kilometers from Junagarh on NH 26 – which has forests on either side of it, police said quoting her complaint.
The attackers raped her and disappeared into the jungle. They later uploaded a video of the dastardly act on the social media and it went viral. It was then she decided to lodge her complaint at Junagarh police station on Sunday night.
Acting on her complaint, the police examined the spot of the crime and arrested seven persons in this connection with the incident.
PNN