Kanpur minor rape case: Arrested YouTuber denies charges, claims he is being framed

The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday arrested a YouTuber in connection with the alleged rape of a minor girl in Kanpur. Another accused, a police sub-inspector, is on the run.

Shivbaran, who ran a YouTube channel, denied the allegations and claimed that he was being framed.

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“I am innocent. I am being framed. If I am guilty, I should be hanged till death. I don’t know that girl. The police sub-inspector was with me, but he did not commit any crime,” he said.

Meanwhile, the brother of the minor girl, who was allegedly raped by the YouTuber and the policeman, alleged that his sister was abducted by the accused.

“My sister had gone to use the toilet and then went missing… During the search for her, we spotted a parked car and a motorbike on the nearby road. After half an hour, the same car was parked behind our house. Forty minutes later, my sister returned home. When we questioned her about where she had gone, she said that she had gone to use the toilet when some people abducted her and forced her to sit inside a car,” he told a news agency.

The girl later told her family that she had been sexually assaulted by two people and threatened with death if she disclosed the incident. “The next day, my sister identified Shivbaran at the police station and accused him of sexually assaulting her,” he said.

The police initially delayed the FIR and didn’t press charges under the POCSO Act. Later, the SHO of the police station, where the victim had lodged the FIR, was suspended and the DCP transferred.

Kanpur Police Commissioner Raghubir Lal said that the absconding sub-inspector will be dismissed from service once he is arrested.

“The Station House Officer has been suspended for negligence in handling the case. The absconding sub-inspector will be arrested on the basis of the evidence, and action will also be taken to dismiss him from service,” he said.