Bhubaneswar: The city police on Wednesday arrested a BTech student and three of his associates on charges of gang raping his 23-year-old girlfriend around a month ago and blackmailing her since then.
Police said that the three associates, all in their 20s, were known to the 23-year-old rape survivor, who is also a BTech student.
According to the woman’s FIR filed on Tuesday, she and her boyfriend (21) are enrolled in the same institute in Bhubaneswar. Around a month ago, the boyfriend and his three associates, who work in private companies, repeatedly raped the woman in his room and recorded the assault on their phones. They later started blackmailing her with the videos. The FIR did not specify the exact date of the incident or the reason for her delay in reporting the incident to the police.
Police said the complaint was lodged a day after the rape survivor and five other men were detained for allegedly kidnapping her boyfriend. DCP Jagmohan Meena stated that she engaged the men to abduct him as he had been blackmailing her with the videos. “On Monday (May 11) afternoon, the survivor and five men kidnapped the boyfriend from the Info Valley area on a four-wheeler. Acting on a tip-off, we traced the vehicle and rescued him from Chandaka the same evening,” Meena said.
A case was registered against the woman and the abductors and during interrogation, the survivor revealed the motive behind the kidnapping and said she was gang raped and was being blackmailed. On Tuesday, she lodged the FIR, leading to the arrest of her boyfriend and his associates.
Police clarified that the survivor and the five abductors have not been arrested. “Since she is a victim of sexual violence, we did not arrest her. She has been booked and served with a notice to appear for questioning when required. The men she engaged have also been served notices but not arrested,” Meena added.
Family members of the accused have demanded action against the survivor. “She is lying. She invited all four men for a party at her boyfriend’s room. She was in relationships with multiple men. Police should verify CCTV footage of a hotel where she was recently seen with two men. Since she engineered the abduction, she should also be arrested,” a relative of one of the accused said.
