Jajpur: Three held for sexual assault on minor

JAJPUR: Three minors including a diploma engineering student were arrested after a video, purportedly showing a 12-year-old girl being sexually assaulted, went viral on social media in Marzitapur within Jenapur police limits of Jajpur district on Friday.

Police said that the accused made the video on a mobile phone while allegedly assaulting the minor and later uploaded it on social media platforms when the latter refused to meet their demand. While the incident took place a few days ago, it came to light after the family members of the victim filed a complaint against the trio, aged between 14 and 17 years, with the local police on Thursday. All the accused are from the same village.

Jenapur police said the accused had befriended the minor girl and later allegedly raped her and recorded the act on a mobile phone. They had threatened the minor girl that they would make the video viral if she disclosed the matter to anyone.

“Soon afterwards, the accused started blackmailing the minor girl using the video clip and threatened to make it public if she did not pay them `20,000. But when the victim refused, they posted the video on social media platforms which went viral last week,” said Jenapur IIC Umakanta Nayak.

When a relative of the victim saw the video on social media, he informed the girl’s father. “Basing on the complaint lodged by the victim’s father, we registered a case under relevant sections of IPC and POCSO Act against the accused,” he said, adding all of them were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board on Saturday.