Four Arrested in Samastipur After Viral Video Shows Teen Girl Harassed

Four men have been arrested and a first information report filed after a video surfaced showing a teenage girl being harassed by a group of men on a village road in Bihar's Samastipur district, a senior police officer said.

The footage, which appeared on Wednesday, is said to have been recorded in Jagatsinghpur village. It shows men on motorcycles surrounding the girl and a boy who was travelling with her, verbally abusing her and pushing her around the road.

According to local accounts, the girl and the boy had stopped on the road to take photographs when some men from the village approached and surrounded them. The men seen in the clip were residents of Jagatsinghpur itself, locals said.

Police said they began acting as soon as they came across the video. "Based on a viral video showing a group of men harassing a girl in broad daylight in the Jagatsinghpur area, four accused have been arrested and an FIR has been filed," the officer said. A search is on for the other accused seen in the footage.

The incident occurred roughly 131 km from Jamui, where a similar case drew widespread attention just days earlier. In that episode, three people were arrested after a video showed two Class 10 students — a boy and a girl — being harassed. The clip showed the couple surrounded by a group of men, one of whom grabbed the boy's shirt collar and pulled him away from the girl, while a masked man caught her from behind as she tried to run. The two had gone out on a scooter after attending coaching classes on Saturday evening.

Janata Dal (United) leader Rajeev Ranjan condemned the Samastipur incident, saying that those involved in such crimes would end up behind bars if they did not take a warning from the action taken in the Jamui case.