Nashik: 8th standard girl gang-raped by classmates, six accused held

A minor school-going girl was allegedly gang-raped by boys from her class, two months ago. The case appears to be a consequence of over indulgence in social media.

While six boys have been named as accused in this case, one of them, 21-year-old has been remanded to four days police custody.

The mother of the girl who was studying in 8th standard in a well known English-medium school in Cidco locality in Nashik, reported to the police that her daughter was gang raped in September 2016.

The case came to fore when on Sunday, the mother found a objectionable message on her daughter’s phone.  She then probed the girl who alleged that she was raped by six boys during the Diwali holidays. The girl said she was threatened by the boys not to speak about the incident.

Police said that the girl’s friend had formed a group on social media in which the victim was added along with many other boys from the class and school. Some of the boys had shared some "inappropriate" messages and images.

The FIR mentions that the girl was asked to come out of the house under the pretext of getting her notebook. One of her classmates then asked her to accompany her to a house in the locality where there were other boys too. The girl stated that she was given a drink which made her drowsy after which she was raped.

After the case was reported on Sunday evening, the police immediately held six boys, one of them being 21 years old. They were arrested and produced in the court on Monday. The court has remanded him to police custody for four days. The case is being investigated by Ambad police.

Speaking about the increasing cyber activity, Commissioner of police Dr Ravinder Singal said, “This is a very sensitive issue. From the cases that we see, we find that children are indulging increasingly with social media and they don’t understand the gravity of it. This over indulgence in cyber activity is disturbing and there has to happen a discussion amongst parents and teachers. A serious dialogue on the issue which makes the children aware of responsible behaviour on the social media is necessary. They need to know that illegal writing on such media can land them under the scanner of the law enforcing agency and such inappropriate cyber activity can land their future in trouble”.