The West Godavari district police, which arrested five persons on charge of exploiting tribal girls by promising jobs in K.R. Puram Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA), are probing the role of the staff in the case.
The police have registered a sexual harassment case and are making efforts to arrest ITDA Project Officer R.V. Suryanarayana, who has been named main accused in the case.
“The ITDA Project Officer allegedly misused his powers and conducted illegal activities in the ITDA Office and the government quarters in Kota Ramachandrapuram (K.R. Puram) village. Besides, the tribal girls were reportedly taken to the guest house of the Project Officer,” said West Godavari Superintendent of Police K. Narayan Naik.
Suryanarayana allegedly sexually harassed a woman employee of the ITDA in his office. He transferred the employee to Eluru from the Agency area after she refused to give in to his demands, the SP said.
Video clips go viral
The Project Officer reportedly gave money to the other accused who allegedly acted as mediators in trapping the tribal girls. However, differences cropped up when Suryanarayana refused to pay more money to the mediators. Two of the accused videographed the statements of a woman and uploaded the clips in a social media group which which went viral, the police said.
The accused were all natives of Buttaigudem, Koyyalagudem and Jangareddygudem mandals of West Godavari district. Meanwhile, the police arrested K. Hemanthu Naga Venkata Pavan alias Ramana, the sixth accused in the case. All the six accused were produced before the Jangareddygudem court on Wednesday, Mr. Narayan Naik said.
