Friendship on social media proves dearer to minor girl

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

It proved dearer to a minor girl to fall in love with a boy who befriended her through social media in 2022. The accused through sweet talks took her to a lodge on Beed Bypass and exploited her sexually twice. In addition, the cousin brother of Vikas also started harassing the victim. Hence Satara police have booked a case of rape and kidnapping against the prime accused Shiva Dattatray Sukase and Vikas Prakash Sukase (resident of Nagapur in Gangapur).

It is learnt that the complainant is a 12th-standard student of a college situated in the Railway Station area. She stays in a hostel. It so happened that she befriended Shiva through Instagram in 2022. Later on, the duo started seeing each other regularly on the college campus.

On December 23, Shiva under the pretext of a long ride took her to a lodge situated on Beed Bypass. He forcibly got physical with her. In the meantime, Shiva’s cousin Vikas made a video call to him. The whole incident was videographed by Vikas. Later on, Shiva again took her to the same lodge and exploited her on January 13.

In the meantime, Vikas started insisting the victim talk to her or else he threatened to share the video with her cousin's sister in the village. On January 1, Vikas forcibly took the girl with him. On freeing from his clutches, the girl complained of kidnapping with the police station. However, Shiva and Vikas pressured the victim’s parents to withdraw the complaint. They also sent the video of the lodge where Shiva and the girl met for the first time. The family panicked and they did not complain about them. However, Shiva continued to harass the minor girl. Hence to get rid of the harassment, the victim mustered her courage and complained to the police inspector of Satara Police Station, Brahma Giri. Accordingly, the accused Shiva and Vikas were booked by the police for kidnapping and sexually exploiting the minor girl.