NEW DELHI, May 25: An illiterate former mill worker using modern technology to morph his voice has raped at least seven tribal students in Sidhi district in Madhya Pradesh.
Police said Brajesh Kushwaha by misusing a voice-changing app would pose as a woman teacher from a college to fool tribal college students. He would trick the girl students into believing that “she” would help them get a scholarship. In a female voice, Kushwaha would tell the students to go to a deserted area where she would send a man to meet them and bring them to her house on a motorcycle. Kushwaha would show up, take the students to a forest and rape them.
Police said he sexually assaulted at least seven tribal college students this way. The survivors have told the police that Kushwaha would wear a helmet, making him difficult to identify. The only giveaway was the fact that he would always wear gloves. This little detail led the police to Kushwaha, who had burnt his hands while working at a rolling mill in Maharashtra.
Kushwaha was arrested on Saturday, along with three alleged accomplices, and the Sidhi district administration has razed his house using a bulldozer. Inspector General of Police Mahendra Sikarwar said, “A woman approached us and said a man had raped her after luring her to a deserted area in the name of helping her get a scholarship. After our investigation, we identified Brajesh Kushwaha, who has been arrested. He told us that he used to change his voice to a woman’s using a cellphone app. Three of his accomplices have also been arrested.”
“The clue that helped us crack the case was the fact that the students’ assaulter wore gloves when he met all of them,” Mr Sikarwar added. A police official said Kushwaha is illiterate but learned how to use the app as well as extract numbers from phones to identify potential targets. The cyber cell has also issued an advisory, asking people to be careful about the misuse of voice-changing apps.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has ordered the constitution of a nine-member special investigation team to probe the case and check whether Kushwaha had targeted more women. A woman deputy superintendent of police will head the team.
(Manas Dasgupta)
