Seven girls lured on pretext of scholarship in MP’s Sidhi, raped

A man has been arrested in Sidhi district of Madhya Pradesh for allegedly raping at least seven women by luring them to meet his accomplices after he used a mobile application to alter his voice to that of a woman, officials said on Saturday.

The elaborate crime came to light after one of the victims filed a complaint at the Majhauli police station on May 20, against an unknown man and three of his accomplices. The victims were from the scheduled tribes community and were targeted by the main accused Brajesh Prajapati, who pretended to be a college principal offering scholarships.

The police arrested the main accused and his three accomplices — Rahul Prajapati, 24, Luvkush Prajapati, 23 and Sandeep Prajapati, 21 — under the charges of rape, wrongful confinement and voluntarily causing hurt on Thursday.

Rewa range inspector general of police Mahendra Singh Sikarwar said, “Four accused have been arrested in the case.”

Giving details of the crime, senior police officers said that Brajesh accessed contact numbers of the women from the scheduled tribes community through college WhatsApp groups. He would then call the women using an application to alter his voice and pretending to be a female teacher. Once the women reached the location he asked them to visit, Brajesh would rape them, and threaten them against complaining, the officer said.

“Brajesh Prajapati, who is a labourer, and Sandeep Prajapati accessed the contact numbers of students through college WhatsApp groups. The main accused used to call the girl students by altering his voice with Magic Voice mobile application and pretend to be “Ranjana Ma’am” the principal of a government college,” the IG said.

Sikarwar said Brajesh would tell the targets that their signatures were required immediately to release their scholarships. “He would tell them his son would pick them up. Instead, Rahul, Sandeep and Luvkush would pick the girls from their houses and take them to the location Brajesh picked,” the IG said.

Once at the spot, Brajesh raped the women, “snatched their mobile phones and threatened them with dire consequences”, the IG said. He said that the accused has confessed to the crime and reportedly told them that he wanted to have sexual intercourse with as many women as possible.

After the first case was filed against him on May 20, the police initiated an investigation, following which Brajesh was arrested and confessed to have raped seven girls in just the past three months.

“As of now only four came forward to register an FIR against them,” the IG said, adding that it was found that the main accused have scars from serious burn injuries on his hand and the police identified him by that. Police suspect there might be more victims of the crime as they recovered 16 mobiles phones the possession of the accused. “There are more accused involved in the case. They will be arrested soon,” the IG added.

Chief minister Mohan Yadav has constituted a nine-member special investigation team to probe the matter. “SIT will investigate the matter that happened with Scheduled Tribal girl students in Sidhi. Nine-member SIT will investigate the matter and submit the report,” he said.