The son of an All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA has been named as an accused in the gangrape of a 17-year-old girl in Hyderabad last month, the Telangana Police said on Tuesday, reported the Hindustan Times. He is a minor and the sixth accused person in the case.
Before this, the police had booked four minors and one adult.
On May 28, the girl and her friend had gone to a pub in the Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad to attend a party where she was allegedly befriended by the accused persons.
Hyderabad Commissioner of Police CV Anand said that the accused persons misbehaved with the girl, and then trapped her, according to The News Minute. According to him, four minors took the girl to a bakery in a car, and forcibly kissed her in the vehicle.
Meanwhile, the accused man, Saduddin Malik, and three minors also went to the bakery in another car, the police said. Subsequently, Malik and four minors allegedly took her to a secluded spot behind a temple and took turns to rape her.
The girl initially shared vague details about the attack with her parents on May 31. A day later, she told the police everything.
The police had initially filed a case under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Act about aggravated sexual assault. They subsequently added the provisions of 376D of the Indian Penal Code (gang rape) and Sections 5 and 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Act.
On June 4, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Raghunandan Rao alleged that an MLA’s son was involved in the gangrape. At a press conference, Rao showed a video of the accused persons to reporters.
“I have not shown the face of the girl or exposed her identity, taking all the precautions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act,” he claimed. “The faces of the accused individuals, however, can be seen. I have put forth the evidence before the police and the public. Now the police should determine if there was involvement of the MLA’s son.”
He also displayed printouts of screengrabs from the video.
Initially, the police had found that the MLA’s son was not in the car and had said that he was not involved in the assault, according to NDTV.
On Tuesday, the police booked Rao, who is also a lawyer, for releasing pictures and a video of the girl.
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