Kannur: Eight people have been taken into custody by the Taliparamba police over the sexual abuse of a minor girl by several people reportedly after luring her through a social media account. Allegedly, the initial assault of the class 10 girl took place a couple of years ago and a relative of the minor is also in custody in this case. Police said 20 people have been identified over the crime and more could be made accused.
It has also come to light that the accused tried to extort money from her brother by threatening to publicise the visuals if he didn't pay up. A case was registered for gang rape as well on the basis of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, confirmed Taliparamba DySP Venugopalan, who is in charge of the probe.
The girl was taken to Judicial First-Class Magistrate, Taliparamba, on Tuesday evening for recording her statement. However, the police said there are some contradictions in the statement given by the girl, who is 16 years old.
The girl has reportedly claimed that she was befriended by a woman named Anjana on Facebook. Her ordeal started after she was invited to meet her at Puthiya Theru, Kannur. From there, she was taken to a lodge at Parassinikkadavu, along with a man. At the lodge, her objectionable video was recorded and it was used to force her return there a second time when she was allegedly tied to a cot and raped by three who took turns.
The recent crime was on November 13. The accused made her yield after blackmailing her with the video of the initial crime as well as the chat records.
Followed by the assault, the girl's brother was called by the gang, who showed him the recorded video and demanded money for not leaking the video and chats. The brother fought with the gang and came back home and confirmed the matter with his sister. Subsequently, the girl was taken by her brother and mother for counselling at the women's cell of the Kannur Town police station and the crime was revealed in detail.
Taliparamba police was soon informed and investigation commenced.
However, in the first stage of investigation, the police say that they could not find the presence of another woman as told by the victim. “The fake Facebook ID of a woman, as told by the girl, was actually used from the mobile phone of one of the accused himself. So, we do not think that there is a woman accused as a connecting link between the girl and these men. More details would be known only after further investigation,” the DySP said.
The accused are reportedly from Pazhayangadi, Payyannur, Matool, Dhramasala and Kannur town limits.
Earlier this month, three girl students had accused a teacher of sexual harassment in Malappuram, a neighbouring district of Kannur. After the police registered a case against him the Urdu teacher went missing.
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