Man held for raping, blackmailing 17-year-old in Rajasthan's Jhalawar

A 23-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly raping a girl on multiple occasions, recording the act and using it to blackmail her in Rajasthan's Jhalawar district, police said.

The incident took place in a village under the Khanpur Police Station limits and the arrest was made on Friday, they said.

The 17-year-old girl and her father had approached the Jhawalar SP with their complaint on Thursday, following which a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, DSP and Circle Officer Bhanwar Singh Hada, who is investigating the case, said.

The accused, identified as Saddam Hussain Pinjara, was on Saturday produced before a Jhalawar court which sent him to two days' police remand.

In her complaint, the minor alleged that the accused, who is her neighbour, took her to an isolated place around three months ago and raped her at knifepoint and also clicked her pictures and recorded the act in his mobile phone, police said.

The accused threatened to post the video and pictures of the girl on social media sites. Moreover, he threatened to kill the girl if she narrated the incident to her family. He allegedly raped the girl on some other occasions as well, they said.

Jhalawar S P Rammurti Joshi ordered for an immediate action in the matter, following which the police, after medical examination of the minor, arrested the accused from his village on Friday, DSP Hada said.

Police recovered the mobile which the accused youth had used for clicking obscene pictures and recording videos of the rape survivor, he added.