5 Held After Sexual Assault Video of 19-Yr-Old Surfaces in K’taka

Representational image of a crime scene.

(Photo: iStock)

The police have arrested five men after a video of a 19-year-old student being sexually assaulted in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada surfaced on social media on Tuesday, 2 July, according to The News Minute.

The video shows four men surrounding the young woman and assaulting her, in which the identity of the victim is quite evident.

While the incident occurred sometime in late March or early April this year, the police approached the victim to file a complaint against the men after the video made rounds on social media.

An FIR has been registered and the police have arrested the five suspects – Prajwal, Kishan, Prakyath, Gurunandan and Sunil. All the suspects are 19 years old.

The girl and the suspects study in the same college in Puttur and were friends with each other. However, they were not classmates, according to The News Minute.

According to Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police BM Laxmi Prasad, the survivor refrained from revealing the incident at home as she was scared and the suspects were threatening her with the video.

Dakshina Kannada police have filed a suo motu case and alerted the cyber cell. The district police also formed a special team to arrest the culprits, according to India Today.

Meanwhile, Prasad urged the public not to circulate the video on social media.

The police further said that those found circulating the video, including admins of WhatsApp groups, will be charged under Section 354 C (voyeurism) of the IPC, and section 66 E (violation of privacy) of the IT Act.

(With inputs from The News Minute and India Today.)