Bihar goons molest teenage girl in public, shoot video, then blackmail her family for money

PATNA: In a horrifying new twist in incidents of mob assaults on women in Bihar, a group of ruffians put the video clip of a teenage girl's molestation on the social media when her father failed to pay them the money they demanded. Police in East Champaran district said seven men assaulted the girl, a student of class X, on a road when she was walking with a male friend of hers. One of the culprits recorded the molestation in a mobile phone. After sending the video clip to the girl's father, the culprits said they would put it on the Internet unless he pays them Rs 50,000.

"The girl's father to arrange the money to pay them, but failed. Then he was told by many of his relatives and friends about the video clip being viral on the social media," said a police official. Although the incident is said to have happened about a fortnight ago, the girl's father approached police to lodge an FIR on Friday.

In fact, fearing that approaching the local police may bring further bad name and trouble to the girl, her father filed a petition at a court in Motihari, the district headquarters town. "After we learnt of the viral video, we contacted the victim's father and asked him to submit a written complaint. We are yet to receive any directions from the court in this regard," said Shailendra Kumar Singh, SHO of Chhaudadana police station to The New Indian Express.

The seven accused belong to nearby areas and some of them can be identified from the video clip, said the SHO. "We have started an investigation and the accused would be arrested soon," he added. At least eight incidents of young women being publicly molested by groups of men and the video clips going viral on the social media have come to light in Bihar in the past three months. This incident caused fresh concerns because it involved blackmailing by the accused to make a fast buck.