Three men were arrested by the Andhra Pradesh police on Tuesday after a shocking video which showed them sexually assaulting a college girl and trying to gang-rape her went viral on social media.
The incident occurred in Prakasam's Kanigiri town, and reportedly took place in August, but the video started getting circulated on Facebook and WhatsApp just recently.
The Times of India reported that the victim was in a relationship with the main accused, identified as Sai, a B.Sc agriculture student. However, she said that she decided to break up with him as he was only interested in her sexually.
Irked at this, Sai and his two friends, Karthik and K Pawan, convinced the girl to come to an isolated place to 'discuss' the relationship, and tried to gang-rape her.
The police said that Karthik instigated Sai to "take revenge against her" and captured the crime in his mobile phone, before he shared it with his friends on social media.
The video shows the victim, begging and pleading to the accused to stop, even as he continues to grope her and tries to disrobe her.
Another girl, who accompanied the victim to the spot, is seen trying to stop the crime but in vain. She is now a key witness in the case.
According to reports, the Kangiri police registered cases under Section 67 of IT Act and sections 354A (Sexual Harassment), 354B (Assault), 376 (Punishment for rape) read with 511 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The police registered the case after they convinced the parents to lodge a complaint. The trio were arrested after the victim identified them.
"We learnt about the incident three days ago after which we registered the case and arrested the accused. We request parents, teachers to keep a watch on the activities of their children,” the Prakasam police said in a press release.