The Delhi Police have arrested three men for allegedly raping a 12-year-old girl, recording the act in a video and circulating it on WhatsApp. According to some reports, the girl is mentally challenged.
The police said the main suspect is also the girl’s neighbour in the Rohini locality, the Hindustan Times reported. The three men allegedly lured the girl to the house of the main accused, who raped her while the other two shot the video. They threatened the girl against talking about the crime, saying they would upload the videos on the internet and circulate them on WhatsApp.
The accused then sent out the video on the messaging service, and the case came to light after a neighbour alerted the girl’s mother about it. The police identified the crime spot from the video, after which they traced the men and arrested them, IANS reported.
“We raided their hideouts and arrested them on Monday,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) Rajneesh Gupta told the Hindustan Times. “The mobile phone that was used to record the videos belong to one of the arrested men.”
The main accused was booked for rape and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, while his friends were booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act.
Meanwhile, the girl’s family alleged that they were facing pressure to withdraw the case. “The main accused is a powerful person and his family members have a strong hold in the area,” the child’s mother told IANS. “They are asking us to withdraw the rape case and leave the locality.”
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