THEME 5: ROLE OF MODERN TECHNOLOGY IN FUELING FEUDAL, CASTEIST POWER DYNAMICS
CASE STUDY: HOW SOCIAL MEDIA BECOMES FERTILE GROUND FOR VICTIM BLAMING, RETALIATION & BLACKMAIL
State: Andhra Pradesh
Date: January 2019
Age: 15
One year prior to the incident, the survivor connected with the accused (from the same village) through Facebook. They became close and used to meet frequently. Soon after, she came to know that his character is questionable and stopped talking to him. The accused continuously kept pestering her and threatened to share their photographs on Facebook and WhatsApp. He even told all the classmates of the survivor that she is in an intimate relationship with him.
One day, he forcibly took her to his brother’s house in Vishakhapatnam by threatening her that he will murder her father. From there, he took her to a temple, exchanged garlands and claimed that they are married now. Since then the father of the accused and his friends threatened that she would have to face dire consequences if she dared to leave him. She was locked in a room for twenty days and was served drugged food to sedate her.
The parents of the survivor were worried about her. They did not lodge a police complaint as they were afraid that in such a situation, it will become very difficult for them to get her married in future. They were also fearful that they would lose respect in the society, and a lot of stigma would be attached to their family. One day the parents found the accused in their neighbourhood. They caught hold of him, asked about their daughter and warned him that they will lodge a police complaint. The accused was afraid and took them to his house, where her parents rescued the survivor and took their daughter back home.
The survivor resumed her life as usual and was back to her college. However, the accused did not stop calling her. During the Pongal holidays in 2019, she went to her aunt’s house at Guntur along with her parents. The accused forced her to come out of the house on the pretext that he will hand over all their intimate photos to her. However, he forcibly took her to a lodge in Tirupati, where he kept her for three days and raped her multiple times.
He then changed his sim card and took the survivor to different places in AP and Karnataka. Her father lodged a complaint, by then they had reached Hyderabad. The accused’s father met them with some people and threatened her to lie to the police that she had willingly gone with the accused. Fortunately, her father went to their house along with police and caught them both. The accused was remanded to judicial custody based on the statement of the survivor.