The arrested students and cyber cafe employee in Hazaribagh on Sunday. Picture by Vishvendu Jaipuriar

Five teenaged tormentors of a schoolgirl at the centre of an MMS scandal in Hazaribagh were arrested by the sadar police on Sunday.

The five are accused of circulating an MMS clip showing the girl in a compromising position with a classmate on the internet. However, the classmate, apparently the boyfriend of the girl, is still at large, though he is said to be studying in Orissa.

According to sadar police station officer in-charge Vinod Singh, the 42-minute video clip was shot with a mobile phone camera in February, following which the girl was continuously blackmailed for money.

The victim, the student of a reputed school in town, reportedly developed a physical relationship with one of her classmates, 19-year-old Ajit Singh.

In February, Ajit allegedly conspired with his friends Vishal Kumar, Santosh Kumar, Gaurav Kumar and Sunil Saurav, to make an MMS clip of him and the girl.

On February 22, Ajit took the girl to Vishal’s home on Subhash Marg, when the latter’s parents were out of station. It was in that house that the video clip was shot by the four boys, with Ajit’s cooperation. The four not only downloaded the clip on their mobile phones, but also also uploaded it on the internet with the help of cyber café employee Mohammad Shamshad.

Speaking to The Telegraph, OC Vinod Singh said Shamshad also made a CD of the clip for circulation.

He said though Ajit had shifted to Orissa in the meantime, the police were hopeful of nabbing him soon. He added that five or six other people had also played a role in circulating the clip, and they too would be arrested. The police had recovered CDs, laptops, desktops and seven mobile phones, which were used to circulate the MMS.

Though the clip had been in circulation since February, the matter was brought to the notice of the police only on September 29 by the girl’s parents. Unable to bear the constant demands for money by her harassers to keep quiet, the girl told her parents everything in August. Following that, her parents contacted superintendent of police Pankaj Kamboj.

Kamboj immediately formed a team led by deputy superintendent of police Satyendra Singh, which carried out a series of raids to nab the culprits. Subsequently, all were arrested and forwarded to central jail on Sunday. Singh said that they had registered the case under section 420, 120(B), 355 of the IPC. He added that all those arrested were more than 18-years-old.

Meanwhile, Kamboj revealed that the role of two teachers in the school both the victim and her tormentors attended was also under scanner. He said the girl had approached the teachers to complain about the harassment she was facing, but instead of helping her, they taunted her repeatedly.

According to the SP, the mobile phones of some other students of the school would be checked as well, and the two teachers questioned. He added that he would instruct school authorities to curb the use of mobile phones by students.