Minor raped, blackmailed with video of act

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested on charges of rape, blackmail and under the stringent Pocso Act.

Based on the complaint of a 16-year-old girl’s father, three teenagers were accused of raping the girl, filming the act, and exploiting her for months with the threat of circulating the video.

The police are keen to arrest the others, meanwhile, the boy detained on Saturday was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board and remanded to an observation home, since he is also a minor.

The girl’s father recently learnt regarding a lewd MMS clip featuring his daughter doing the rounds in his locality. Following this, he immediately grilled his daughter on the matter and learnt about the act.

The girl said that the arrested boy and a neighbour befriended her. On one occasion, he took her to the terrace of his building and raped her. As he filmed the act, he threatened her not to speak about the matter and kept exploiting her since threatening to circulate the video.

However, things became worse for the girl after a few other boys from the locality approached her one after the other with the video and began exploiting her.

Initially hesitant to approach the police, the girl’s father was later convinced by the police regarding the new laws where the girl would not have to make rounds of the court as her statement recorded before a magistrate would be enough to nail the accused.

The police are yet to decide whether the 17-year-old would be tried as an adult since new laws allow juveniles in grievous crimes to be treated more strictly.