PATNA: Two weeks after a video clip of a young girl’s molestation and forcible disrobing bid by seven young men in Jehanabad shocked the country, another video clip purportedly showing the rape of a young woman in presence of several men has gone viral, prompting police to begin a probe.
At least five men are seen in an open agriculture field with the woman when she is being sexually assaulted while crying for help, said police officials familiar with the probe. The location of the incident and the date are yet to be ascertained, but from the Magahi dialect used by the people in the video clip suggests the incident took place in a district in southern Bihar.
“Police chiefs in four districts – Jehanabad, Gaya, Arwal and Aurangabad – have been asked to find out the location of this incident and the identity of the people seen in the viral video clip. An FIR has been lodged in Gaya. Efforts are on to trace and arrest the culprits,” said Bihar’s ADGP (headquarters) SK Singhal on Saturday. IGP (Magadh Zone) Nayyar Hasnain Khan is monitoring the probe, he added.
Photographs of the faces of the five men seen in the video clip have been sent to all police stations in these four districts. “The photos are also being shared with all village chowkidars. The video clip, which came to the notice of police on Friday, shows a girl supine on the ground on an open farmland and a man forcing himself on her. After raping her, the man is seen asking his friends if they too wanted to take turns,” said a police official involved in the probe.
“An FIR has been registered at Kotwali police station by SHO Ajay Kumar against unnamed accused. Concerted efforts are on to trace the accused and the victim,” said Gaya district SSP Rajeev Mishra. He said the crime recorded on video does not prima facie show that it was a gangrape.
In the Jehanabad incident, a 16-year-old girl was molested and forcibly disrobed by more than seven young men on an open road in a videotaped incident on April 30. Eleven accused, including eight minor boys, were arrested within five days after the video clip went viral.