Tuni: A 62-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping a minor girl in an orchard after picking her up from hostel, impersonating as the girl's grandfather, a police official said on Wednesday.
She is a student in a government school, he added.
Kakinada district superintendent of police (SP) Bindu Madhav Garikapati said T Narayana Rao committed the crime around 11 am on Tuesday.
"He (Rao) lured the girl. The girl went with him with consent. But consent of a minor is not considered a consent. It is technically a kidnap and serious sexual assault under the sections of POCSO, because he did not take the consent of parents," Garikapati told PTI.
A video purportedly shot by owner of the orchard, where the old man allegedly sexually assaulted the girl, went viral. The minor girl was explicitly visible, in the video.
However, the owner of the orchard didn't lodge a complaint with the police but made the video viral, prompting police to take action immediately. Police took the statement of the girl and registered an FIR under relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), and BNS.
According to the SP, the old man and the girl are neighbours in Tuni town and both are from same community. Garikapati observed that Rao had also taken the girl out last month.
Meanwhile, Police are pondering over whether or not to book the owner of the orchard as he made the video viral, instead of approaching the police. Another video of the old man getting thrashed by the family members of the girl was also went viral.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and auto-generated from an agency feed.)
