Chennai: After a 13-year-old girl died of a snake bite in a village in Tiruvallur district on Sunday, a video of a 78-year-old man sexually abusing the girl nearly three months ago surfaced on social media. Following this, the man was arrested by the police. The villagers who had shot the video reportedly circulated it after suspecting the death of the girl due to a snake bite to be a murder.
According to a report on Times of India, the victim was a Class 6 girl of a government school in Tiruvallur district and she was raised by her uncle who is a brick kiln worker. The girl started to live with her uncle after she lost her parents at five years of her age.
On Sunday, when the girl went to attend nature's call she was allegedly bitten by a snake. She was rushed to Stanley GH but she died due to a snake bite. Her last rites were performed on Monday.
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After the funeral, the village youngsters reportedly started sharing a video of the man raping the girl. The video was shot three months ago. It showed the man forcing her and abusing her despite the resistance of the girl, the police said TOI.
However, the girl died due to snake bite, the cop added.
After the video started doing the rounds, the police traced the youngsters who circulated the video and nabbed them. They also suspect that the youngsters would have extorted money from the elderly man with the video.
Later, the elderly man was also arrested for sexually assaulting the girl.
Further investigation is on.