KENDRAPARA/BHUBANESWAR: Kendrapara police on Sunday arrested the alleged boyfriend of the 20-year-old college student whose charred body was recovered from her house in a village under Pattamundai Rural police limits five days back.
Twenty-five-year-old Pramod Behera, of Terohi village, was charged with abetment of suicide, as he had threatened to blackmail the girl by sharing her intimate photographs and videos with many persons, including her father.
Initially, police had registered a case of unnatural death in this regard. On Saturday, the father of the victim lodged an FIR at the Pattamundai Rural police station, alleging his daughter set herself ablaze as the accused threatened to blackmail her.
Acting on the complaint, police launched an investigation. During the probe, police recovered more than 50 objectionable videos of the girl from Pramod’s mobile phone. The accused had reportedly made those videos viral and sent them to the girl’s father and four to five other villagers on July 17.
“The accused had called the girl over the phone at about 7.30 am on Wednesday, minutes before the incident,” Kendrapara SP Siddharth Kataria told TNIE. Examination of Pramod’s call records indicated that he had been in contact with the girl for over the last year. He has been booked under sections 296 (obscene acts), 75 (sexual harassment), 78 (stalking) and 108 (abetment of suicide) under BNS and sections 66(E), 67, 67(A) of Information and Technology Act, said Kataria.
The victim was a Plus III final-year student with political science as her major. She had also appeared in the semester examination on Tuesday, a day before she ended her life.
For the last four months, the accused was working as a plumber in Chennai. After this incident, a police team rushed to Chennai and brought him back to Kendrapara on Friday night.
“Earlier, we were investigating to know whether it was a case of suicide or murder. But after examining the footage of a nearby CCTV and scrutinising statements of the parents, other family members, and neighbours, we concluded that it was a case of self-immolation,” added the police officer.
Meanwhile, Pramod’s family members alleged he was framed and the girl was murdered by her father. “The girl was in touch with our son regularly, and he wanted to marry her, but her parents were opposed to it. The girl also told us umpteen times that her parents were torturing her mentally and physically as she was hell-bent on marrying our son,” said Pramod’s mother, Shantilata.
His parents, relatives, and villagers sat on dharna in front of the Pattamundai Rural police station on Sunday to protest the arrest and demanded immediate release of the accused. Pramod’s parents also threatened to immolate themselves in front of the police station, for which security has been tightened.
The accused was produced in a court at Pattamundai and remanded in jail custody after his bail plea was rejected.