By Shankar Raj*
Bengaluru: Eight young students involved in a lip-lock video in Karnataka have landed behind lock-up. The video that went viral showed a boy and a girl, both in their uniforms, kissing while their friends cheered them on.
The eight teens from a local college in Mangaluru, who were involved in the incident, have been taken into custody and have been produced before a juvenile justice court. They were booked under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act.
Sources in the police said the video was filmed six months ago but was uploaded recently by a juvenile. The incident took a serious twist when one of the two girls involved in the lip-lock video alleged sexual assault in a complaint with the police. Immediately the police charged the boys with relevant sections dealing with sexual assault.
The video was reportedly filmed in a private apartment in Mangaluru and involved one more girl apart from the complainant.
In the police complaint, the girl admitted that she knew the boys in that apartment and that she had a physical relationship with one of them. The students had a fun party sometime in February 2022 and had a game called “truth or dare” which involved kissing.
Police sources said they first detained the boy who made the video for questioning. Thereafter, they booked all eight students under sections 376, 354, 354 (C) and 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code, IPC, apart from POCSO.
According to the police, their investigations revealed that all the eight boys sexually assaulted the two girls several times, using video clips taken during this get-together. They started blackmailing the girls and finally, a 17-year-old boy reportedly uploaded the video on social media.
*Shankar Raj is former Editor of The New Indian Express, Karnataka and Kerala, and writes regularly on current affairs.
