Seven tribal students who were lured with a scholarship using a voice-changing app were raped

Bhopal: In a shocking incident of sexual violence, three fraudsters allegedly raped over seven college students from an indigenous tribe in Sidhi district of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh by tricking them with the help of a voice-changing app.

Police said the accused allegedly lured the girls using a magic voice app. They posed as teachers, spoke to the victims in female voices and told them remote locations under the pretext of collecting documents for scholarships.

For the avoidance of doubt, they were told in advance that a boy on a bicycle would come to a particular place to pick them up and take them to the teacher, police said, adding that all the victims belonged to the tribal community. The accused were targeting students from those colleges that offer scholarships.

The incident came to light after a victim complained to the police, who tracked down the whereabouts of one of the accused and arrested him.

During interrogation, he revealed the involvement of two other people who were also taken into custody. The accused have so far confessed to raping seven college students, according to investigators. They said that charges were filed based on complaints from four of the victims.

Police suspect the number of girls could be even higher and said further investigations would be carried out to ensure the accused do not escape justice.

Police said the main accused, Brajesh Prajapati, and his accomplices Rahul Prajapati and Sandeep Prajapati are labourers. During questioning, they allegedly said that they came to know about the voice-changing app from YouTube.

After installing the app on their phones, they allegedly started targeting female students, according to police. Brajesh and his friends obtained the victims’ phone numbers from a WhatsApp group of students at a government college in Sidhi district.

One of them posed as Ranjana and called the girls several times to confide in them. The accused told the police that they had been doing this for three months.

Sidhi Superintendent of Police Dr. Ravindra Verma said The Mooknayak that separate rape cases have been registered based on complaints from four girls. “The accused are being subjected to intensive interrogation as we suspect there are other victims who may be reluctant to come forward.”

Inspector General of Police (Rewa Range) Mahendra Singh Sikarwar also said the same during a press conference. “The accused have confessed to raping seven schoolgirls, but there could be more. This is being investigated. The police headquarters has been informed about it,” he told reporters.

Congress launches offensive against BJP

The Congress, the main opposition party in the state, has accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of not being serious about tribal people and demanded a high-level inquiry.

“The BJP government has never taken seriously the issue of ensuring the safety of tribals who are victims of various types of crimes in Madhya Pradesh. The present incident is unfortunate and we demand a high-level inquiry into the incident. However, this is not an isolated case of crimes against the tribal community. Earlier, a BJP leader had urinated on the face of a tribal in the same district,” Ramu Tekam, state president of the Tribal Congress, told The Mooknayak.

MP leads atrocities against tribals

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 2,979 cases of atrocities against tribals were reported in 2022, 13 percent more than the previous year.

In the last three years, the state has topped the list of cases of tribal atrocities, with Rajasthan and Maharashtra coming in second and third place respectively, with 2,521 and 742 cases.