Andhra Pradesh Police on Monday said that they arrested 11 men for alleged gang-rape of a minor girl on separate occasions in Vishakhapatnam, reported PTI.
The girl, who is a resident of Odisha, told the police that she was taken to a hotel room in Vishakhapatnam by her boyfriend. She said that her boyfriend took her under the pretext of celebrating her birthday on December 17.
At the hotel, the boyfriend sexually assaulted her after which he also called a fried to the hotel.
Vishakhapatnam Zone-1 deputy commissioner of police K Srinivas Rao was quoted by PTI as saying, “He brought his friend who also sexually assaulted the girl.”
Unable to deal with the mental trauma, the girl decided to end her life over sexual assault. She went to RK Beach in Vishakhapatnam to end her life where a photographer at the beach befriended her, said Rao.
After conversing with the girl, he took her to a lodge and raped her. Later, he called his eight to nine of his friends and took the girl to another room where they gang-raped her over two days.
“After this, the girl managed to escape from there and ran away,” the officer further said.
The matter came to the fore only after the parents of the girl filed a missing persons complaint with the police.
Rao said, “Based on a complaint received by the minor girl's parents on December 18, we registered a missing case on the same day and started an investigation. We received information that she was in Odisha. Immediately, our police team went there and brought her back on December 25.”
According to the police, the girl was raped by the photographer and his friends on December 20, 21, and 22. They are also looking into whether she was raped on December 18 and 19 as well.
The police has altered the missing case into a rape case (IPC Sec 376) and added the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act (POCSO), added Rao.
Meanwhile, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, K Chandrababu Naidu said that his head hung in shame over the incident. “My head hangs in shame, and my heart aches at this heinous crime in Vizag (Visakhapatnam),” he wrote on X.
He further alleged an utter failure of law and order situation in Andhra Pradesh under the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government.
“Criminals continue to hurt our daughters and sisters without fearing the law because they know there is no law and order in a YSRCP-ruled Andhra Pradesh. Forget women empowerment, YS Jagan's vision seems to only empower criminals who prey on women,” wrote Naidu.
