Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Police have arrested a 30-year-old man and his three relatives for allegedly raping seven women by using a voice-modulating ‘Magic App’, pretending to be a woman professor and luring them with scholarship offers to a secluded place in Sidhi district.
Police said the main suspect, Brajesh Prajapati, has admitted to raping at least seven women, with five of them filing formal complaints. Of the five, one is a minor and another a dropout.
Apart from Prajapati, three other accused — Luv Kush Prajapati, Rahul Prajapati and Sandeep Prajapati — have also been arrested.
Five separate FIRs have been filed under IPC sections 376 (punishment for rape, which includes rigorous imprisonment), 366 (kidnapping or abducting a woman), 394 (voluntarily causing hurt in committing robbery), besides relevant sections of the POCSO Act.
Speaking to ThePrint, Sidhi Superintendent of Police (SP) Dr Ravindra Verma said, “We are calling Brijesh Prajapati as the main accused as he was responsible for the rapes and loot cases. The other three assisted him with providing contacts and then disposing of stolen mobile phones. All four accused are related and belong to the same family.”
The case surfaced on 16 May when a tribal woman contacted the Sidhi Majhouli police station and reported that she was raped after being duped by a woman caller claiming to be a faculty member of Sanjay Gandhi Smarti Government PG College offering a scholarship.
According to the police, the victims were contacted by someone claiming to be a woman, who offered personal meetings to award scholarships. They were told that a man would greet them and guide them to the supposed professor.
Convinced of receiving scholarships, the women ventured out to meet the caller, only to be then led to a remote location by the accused and raped. The women were also looted and their mobile phones snatched to ensure they did not call for help.
Speaking to the media, Inspector-General of Police (Rewa range), Mahendra Singh Sikharwar said, “The accused used an app called ‘Magic App’ and modulated his voice to that of a woman and identified as a professor of Sanjay Gandhi College. After the women were convinced they went there and were raped.”
SP Verma explained the accused learnt of the ‘Magic App’ that manipulated voice through YouTube and began using it for fun before they started to use it to lure women.
Having registered five separate FIRs, the police felt that there was more than one accused and later turned out it was a group of four. “One of the four was studying in the same college (Sanjay Gandhi College) about a year ago. He was part of a WhatsApp group, which had women. He would randomly pick up numbers and contact them,” added Sikarwar.
A distinctive clue leading to the suspects was the discovery that the main accused had sustained burns on his hands. According to the police, Prajapati, a labourer who claimed to have worked in Pune, Nagpur and Jabalpur, had burnt both his hands while working at a steel factory in Jabalpur.
The police said that the culprits ensured they used different mobile phones and SIM cards to call each new victim. So far, 16 mobile phones have been recovered from the accused.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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