MANGALURU: Dakshina Kannada district police
arrested
eight persons on Thursday for circulating a
video clip
of the alleged
gang rape of a student of a private college in Puttur.
Superintendent of Police
BM Laxmi Prasad had set up two teams – one to probe the gang rape and the other to probe how the video went viral on social media.
Based on a suo motu complaint registered in Puttur town police station under Sections 66E, 67A of the IT Act 2000 and Section 4 and 6 of Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, police confirmed that the video was stored in a messaging app on the cellphone used by Prakhyath, an accused in the rape case. The district police’s social media monitoring cell had spotted the video doing the rounds.
Prakhyath’s collegemate Mohith downloaded this video onto his mobile. During the recent college election, two groups of students had clashed and one group used this video to character assassinate the other group in which five accused in the rape were members. Shreyans S got this video from others and circulated it on social media.
Police had warned people not to circulate the video and arrested Muralidhar, 29, of Kasba; Chandrashekar Mayya, 47, of Nehru Nagar, Kabaka; Shreyans S, 20, of Kadaba; Poovappa K, 25, of Aryapu, Mohith PG, 18, of Kasba, Dhyan AN, 18, of Kolthige and Adwith Kumar Naik, 19, of Kasba for not heeding the order. All the accused are residents of Puttur taluk.