Third harassment video in a week surfaces in Bihar, probe on in Banka

A third video purportedly showing the harassment of a girl in Bihar has emerged within a week, this time from the Mandar Hill tourist site in Banka district, prompting a police investigation.

The footage came to the notice of the police on September 22, when the social media cell forwarded it to Bounsi police station over WhatsApp around 2.45 pm. After making a station diary entry, station house officer Pankaj Kumar Jha reached Mandar Hill with a team at about 3 pm to verify the clip and establish the location, according to the FIR. Local shopkeepers were questioned during the verification.

The video appears to show a group of youths behaving indecently with a girl and assaulting her. Two of her friends can be seen being grabbed by their T-shirt collars, while one of the suspects holds a slipper and another a stick.

A case has been registered at Bounsi police station under Sections 74, 75, 76 and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Sections 66E and 67A of the Information Technology Act, 2000.

According to an official, the girl had visited Mandar Hill with two friends on June 3. Three suspects have been identified. They allegedly caught hold of her hand, behaved indecently, abused and threatened her. One of the accused is also alleged to have made one of her friends transfer Rs 1,500 through an online transaction before letting the group leave.

An officer said the incident shown in the video reportedly took place in June, well before the episodes in Jamui and Samastipur, but surfaced only now. Raids are being conducted to arrest the three accused, and their arrest is expected soon.

The case follows two other episodes in the state in which videos of alleged harassment of girls circulated online. In Samastipur, a clip that appeared on September 23 showed a girl being pulled by her hand and hair and subjected to abusive remarks on a bypass road; police said the incident appeared to have occurred about a week earlier. Four accused — Vikas Kumar, Rahul Kumar, Ram Babu Sahni and Awadhesh Paswan — were arrested within six hours of the matter coming to the notice of the police, according to Samastipur SP Arvind Pratap Singh.

In Jamui, a video showing youths surrounding two teenage students in a hilly area had surfaced days earlier. Police subsequently apprehended three juveniles and arrested two adults identified as Nandan Yadav and Hareram Yadav.

RJD national working president and Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, posted a blurred and muted version of the Banka video on X, alleging that it showed the exploitation, indecent behaviour and assault of a minor girl at the historic tourist site. He wrote that law and order in Bihar was dead and questioned Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary over the government's handling of the recent cases.