5 students among 8 held for circulating 'gang rape' video

Eight people, including five students, have been arrested for 'circulating' a video of alleged gang rape of a student of a private college at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district, police said.

They were arrested Thursday on a case registered by the police on its own after the video went viral on social media.

The alleged rape incident that took place in March came to light only this week after the video surfaced.

It was circulated by a group of students who had recently clashed with their rival group in which the rape accused were members, they said.

A case had been registered against them under sections 66 E and 67 A of the IT Act and sections 4 and 6 of Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act.

Assisted by the social media monitoring cell of the district police, the police team formed to trace the source of the video found that it was stored in the messaging app of the mobile phone used by one of the accused in the rape case.

A college mate of the accused had downloaded the video onto his mobile, police said.

The girl student, a Dalit, was allegedly raped by her college-mates after they took her in their car to a forest area.

They had recorded the act and threatened the girl of sharing the video on social media if she revealed the incident to anyone, police said.