A grudge against a few of the accused that their classmate developed during the college election drove him to widely circulate two videos of the gang-rape of the 18-year-old girl on the social media, police investigation has revealed.
Shreyans (20) of Kabaka Village, classmate of Prakhyat, one of the five arrested for the alleged gang rape, is among the eight persons arrested by the Puttur Town Police for alleged circulation of the videos. The arrested persons have been remanded in judicial custody till July 17.
Puttur Town Police registered suo motu a case under Sections 66 E and 67 (A) of the Information Technology Act soon after the social media monitoring cell of the district police was alerted of the two videos being circulated in WhatsApp groups in Puttur.
The others arrested in the case are Muralidhar (29) from Puttur Kasaba, Chandrashekar Mayya (47) of Kabaka, Poovappa K. (26) of Aryapu, Pavan Kumar D. (19), Mohit P.G. (18), Dhyan A.N. (18) and Adwith Kumar Naika (19) from Puttur Kasaba. The Police have also invoked Sections 4 and 6 of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986 against them.
The Women Police have arrested Prajwal, Prakhyat, Gurunandan, Kishan and Sunil, all aged 19, in connection with the case.
Prakhyat reportedly admitted to the police that he uploaded the videos of the act as his status in an App. Before they were removed, his classmate Mohit had downloaded them. Mohit then shared them with a few of his classmates, who, in turn, sent them to Shreyans.
Shreyans, who had had a grudge against Prakhyat, Prajwal and another accused in the sexual assault case, shared them with others on WhatsApp, the police said.
The purported telephonic conversation between Prajwal and a right wing activist, wherein the former reveals the reason for the videos getting viral on the social media, has been widely shared on WhatsApp.
The right wing activist, who does not reveal his identity, rebukes Prajwal for the conduct while the latter regrets the act. “You all have brought a bad name to your parents and to the community. You all have to face the consequences for this misdemeanor,” the activist is heard telling Prajwal.