PALANPUR: A college student from Banaskantha district was allegedly raped repeatedly by seven men over nearly 16 months, who blackmailed her into compliance using a nude video of her, police here said on Wednesday.
One of the six had befriended the 20-year-old woman through Instagram months after she began attending a college in Palanpur in 2023.
In Nov 2023, he persuaded her to join him for breakfast at a hotel. He deliberately spilled food on her dress and took her to a room on the pretext of cleaning it, the FIR states.
Police said when the student removed her clothes in the bathroom, the accused, Vishal Chaudhary, barged in and filmed her.
When she protested, he threatened to make the video public and post it on Instagram, states the FIR, which was registered on Monday at Palanpur taluka police station.
Using the video, he forced the woman to have physical relations with him and his friends at various places on different occasions between Nov 2023 and Feb 2025, the FIR states.
A case was registered against six identified men and an unknown person under sections dealing with repeated rape and criminal intimidation under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The accused have also been booked under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act concerning the publication or transmission of obscene material in electronic form.
Efforts are underway to nab the accused persons, said an official from Palanpur taluka police station. pti
(The victim’s identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme Court directives on cases related to sexual assault)