Dance teacher held for raping, blackmailing minor girls in Knp

KANPUR : A dance teacher was arrested here on Tuesday on the charges of allegedly sexually exploiting minor girls and extorting money from them by threatening to make their objectionable videos viral on the internet, said police officials.

“We have found objectionable videos of 14 girls and thousands of photographs of other girls from his mobile phone and computer, which have been seized. All the girls whose videos were found were students of a leading dance school in Kanpur,” said a police official.

Station house officer (SHO) of Govind Nagar, Rohit Tiwari said, “The accused Aryan Soni, a resident of F Block Dabauli, used to rape the minor and teenage girls, and make videos of the criminal act to blackmail them. He was arrested after one 14-year-old rape victim transferred Rs 19,000 from the bank account of her mother to the account of the instructor’s friend.”

The victim’s mother had filed a fraud case with the cyber cell of Kanpur police and the investigation led the police to the instructor and his criminal act. An FIR against him for rape and fraud under relevant sections of the IT Act were added later.

Two other girls, who were also raped by the dance teacher, told police that they were sexually exploited almost on a daily basis in the dance school.

“When some girls tried to quit, they were threatened that their recorded videos will be made viral on the internet,” said the police.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Kanpur South, Raveena Tyagi said, “The police are investigating the matter and more cases will be filed if the victims or their families come forward with their complaints.”