A senior police officer probing the case said that the woman was sexually tortured for about a year. Eight people, including four minors and two DMK members, allegedly sexually exploited and raped a 22-year-old Dalit woman for more than a year in Tamil Nadu’s Virudhunagar district, police said Tuesday. They were arrested and remanded in police custody on Monday night, with the minors being sent to a correctional facility.
According to police, the Dalit Christian woman was trapped by her lover, who runs a small dairy. Hariharan Mahendran, 27, allegedly shared her private videos with seven of his friends — two of them, excluding the minors, are DMK members.
The police FIR said Mahendran first shared the videos with three people, including the two minors aged 17 and 15.
Using the video, three of them then sexually exploited her, threatening that they would post the video on Facebook. One Madasamy, 37, also sexually exploited her with the same video, saying he would show it to her mother.
Best of Express Premium
A senior officer probing the case said the sexual torture by different people happened for about a year. “It was not gang rape, but different people who sourced the same video from her ex-lover were exploiting her. She was forced to approach police as many of them started coming back with threats again seeking sexual favours,” the officer said.
The accused have been booked under Sections 376(2)(n) (Rape), 354(c) (Voyeurism), 354(D) (Stalking) of the Indian Penal Code, read with Section 66 (e) (Violation of Privacy) of the Information Technology Act and relevant Sections of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
