A 16-year-old girl from Odisha’s tribal-dominated Nabarangpur district hanged herself from a tree on Wednesday, after a video that depicted her in a compromising position with a youngster from the neighbourhood went viral on the social media.
A villager reportedly showed the clip to the girl’s father while her body was being brought back to their house. The father then lodged a complaint against the accused – Jagannath Gouda – with the Jharigaon police station.
Police said the girl, who was in a relationship with Gouda, decided to take the extreme step after the clip found its way to the social media. The video was shot without her knowledge.
Police have launched a hunt for the accused.
Four cases of rape, three of them involving minors, were also reported from the Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Nabarangpur and Nayagarh districts.
In the first case, a minor girl from Nabarangpur who was impregnated through sexual assault four months ago lodged a complaint with the local police station on Wednesday. The accused had allegedly raped the girl while she was herding cattle in the forest. Her parents came to know about the offence only when she began showing signs of pregnancy.
In Keonjhar, police arrested a man for allegedly raping a tribal girl for the last five months. She was also found to be four months’ pregnant.
{{/usCountry}}In Keonjhar, police arrested a man for allegedly raping a tribal girl for the last five months. She was also found to be four months’ pregnant.
{{/usCountry}}The Mayurbhanj incident pertained to a man who allegedly raped a six-year-old girl after luring her with biscuits.
In the fourth incident, a widow was allegedly raped by a man while she was alone at her residence in Nayagarh district on Tuesday evening. Police identified the accused as Lipuna Nayak, a local resident.
A white paper recently released by the state home department revealed that the number of rape cases registered in Odisha increased to 2,221 in 2017 from 2,144 the previous year. As many as 1,283 of these cases involved minors.