Teen girl raped and paraded naked in Meerut of UP in April, five held after video surfaces

New Delhi, July 28

The Uttar Pradesh Police arrested five persons who had allegedly raped a 17-year-old girl, parading her naked and thrashed her in Meerut district. 

The police arrested five persons, one of them was engaged to her. The video of the incident that took in April surfaced on social media recently. 

The victim recorded her statement before a magistrate and was taken for a medical examination to ascertain her age as no document specifying her date of birth was available with her family, police added. 

As per the case details, her family had fixed her wedding with a 22-year-old man from her village last year, and they have been meeting regularly since then. Three months ago, her fiancé took her to a nearby field where four locals spotted them in a compromising position adding that they beat him up and shooed him away. The accused then paraded the girl naked in the village and beat her up. They also shot a video in which she could be heard pleading with them for her clothes. 

The girl was threatened to stay mum. Fearing for the lives of her father and brother, she did not disclose the matter for nearly three months.

The accused forwarded the video to the girl’s brother on July 26 and said that he would not marry his sister as she was paraded naked in the village. After the video was sent to her brother, she narrated the incident to her family who later filed police complaint. 

The accused have been booked under IPC section 376 (3) (commit rape repeatedly on the same woman) and the IT Act while the others were under IPC sections 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe, 328 (causing hurt with intent to commit an offence), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 147 (punishment for rioting), said police, adding that all accused have also been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The Meerut district police stated that they will invoke the National Security Act (NSA) and also collecting the details of their properties in the state.