"Crime committed by anti-social elements": Andhra Police on gangrape incident

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India]: Amid opposition parties criticising the Jagan Mohan government over the minor girl gangrape incident, the Andhra Pradesh Police have said that the crime was committed by "anti-social elements," irrespective of the place of the incident.
"A section of the media and some political parties are blaming the government for any crime committed by anti-social elements, irrespective of the place," according to a press release from the Andhra Pradesh Police Department.
"A minor girl was gang raped by her boyfriend and his friend, and when she tried to end her life in RK Beach, she was approached by photographers who raped her for days before dropping her in Odisha. As soon as the incident came to light, the police department arrested all the accused, except two," the release said.
The case pertains to a 16-year-old, a native of Odisha, who migrated to Visakhapatnam nine months back and worked as domestic help in a house belonging to one, Anish Kumar Sinha, the release from the Chief Minister's Office said.
The girl went missing on December 17, following which her father filed a missing complaint on December 18 at Visakhapatnam, it added.
On December 23, the victim's father received a call from the Odisha police about her daughter. The police team, along with him, reached Pani Kohli in Odisha and brought her back to Vizag on December 25.
"When the police asked her parents to bring her the next day for questioning, they did not turn up and the victim did not reveal any information regarding the incident even after they went to her house. But she came to the station on the 31st along with her parents and disclosed that she went with her friend Imran (from Jharkhand) and his friend Shoaib on her birthday when she was forced to have intercourse with them in a lodge near RK Beach. Later, the duo dropped the girl at her workplace in the morning," the release said.
The release added that again, she went to the beach around 9 am where she met the photographers Raju, Harish, Nagendra, and Gopi who pretended to give her moral strength. They approached her and forcibly took her to an unknown lodge and gang-raped her.
Later, some of his friends, identified as Srinu, Ashok, Naresh, Thambe, Eswar, and Praveen, joined them in assaulting her till December 22, the release said.
When she complained of stomach pain, Harish told her that he would bring a doctor. Later, on December 22, around 7 PM when she requested them to drop her at Odisha, Nagendra took tickets for her and Raju to Bhermapur and boarded them on a train.
On December 23, Raju dropped her off near Pani Kolli police station with Rs 200. She was eventually provided shelter by the police personnel, who alerted her parents in Visakhapatnam, the release said. (ANI)