Lucknow: Seven persons were arrested for attempting to rape a 19-year-old dalit girl and circulating the video of the incident in Jaunpur’s Machhlishahr locality on Thursday.
“The mother of the survivor alleged that during the night of August 14, she, her husband, and their daughter were asleep in the verandah of their house when a group of seven men, aged around 20 to 25 years, with whom they had a longstanding property feud barged inside and took my daughter forcibly,” said the mother of the survivor in her FIR to the police.
She was allegedly taken to a nearby sugarcane field where the accused attempted to sexually assault her. When the girl’s cries for help reached her family members, they swiftly arrived at the scene, prompting the assailants to flee.
The mother revealed that they initially refrained from reporting the incident due to societal stigma. However, the accused themselves released a video of the incident on Wednesday, which subsequently went viral.
This prompted the authorities to initiate legal proceedings against the miscreants identified as Ashish Bind, Vicky Bind, Gore Bind, Pradeep Bind, Pramod Bind, Pappu Bind and Seshamani Bind.
Superintendent of police, Jaunpur, Ajay Pal Sharma, said that the accused were arrested based on surveillance and informer’s tip-off.
“The survivor is a dalit while the accused belong to the OBC community,” said Sharma. “A probe is being conducted while the accused have been sent to the jail,” the officer added.
Police sources said that the accused disclosed that they had not abducted the girl from her house. Instead, they intercepted her while she was on her way back home after meeting her boyfriend.
The accused claimed that they had no intention of rape but only wanted to defame the girl by circulating her videos. “They have been booked under relevant IPC sections, and SC/ST act,” said Sharma.
