Cuttack, Nov. 12: An explicit MMS involving a teenaged girl and an autorickshaw driver is doing the rounds of the silk city.

Police are investigating the matter on the basis of a complaint lodged by the parents of the girl Suchitra (name changed). The complaint was lodged at the Purighat police station on Monday night.

Police are looking for one Tulu Pani, a 26-year-old autorickshaw driver of Rajabagicha area, after getting hold of the MMS clip involving him and the girl of the same locality.

Investigations revealed that another autorickshaw driver Naba Saha (23) had shot the clip on a mobile phone camera in Pani’s rented house. Though the clip was allegedly transferred onto a CD, the police are not sure whether the copies have made their way to the market.

“We are yet to seize any CD with the same contents,” said inspector in-charge of Purighat police station Harihar Dora.

A police officer said: “On close examination, it is apparent that the girl was not aware that she was being filmed. However, there is prima facie evidence that Pani was fully aware that the duo was being filmed. He might have done it for financial gain from the porn trade.”

The officer added that a prima facie case of blackmail had also been found against the two autorickshaw drivers.

“We have registered cases under the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, and several sections of Indian Penal Code,” Dora said.

He, however, admitted that investigations were still in a nascent stage as both Pani and Saha are absconding.

It is learnt that the girl’s parents have named another youth (who reportedly worked with a studio) in the complaint. But the police are yet to ascertain his whereabouts.

“The matter surfaced a month ago. Therefore, by the time the complaint was lodged on Monday, the culprits had enough time to go underground. Moreover, nothing much about their antecedents is known in the locality,” said deputy commissioner of police A.N. Sinha.

Sources said the MMS clip had been shot a few months ago, but it surfaced when the clips featuring the girl was passed on to a few other mobile phones.

Some of the mobile phone owners in Rajabagicha area identified the girl. The local elders took up the matter and subsequently the complaint was lodged.

In a similar incident, one Asima Mohanty of Khannagar area had committed suicide in August 2008. Her father lodged an FIR at the Madhupatna police station alleging that his daughter had committed suicide after an explicit CD featuring her was circulated in the market.

The 22-year-old mass communication student was found hanging from a ceiling fan at her residence on August 18. On August 24, commissioner of police B.K. Sharma said that police had busted a pornography film-making racket with the arrest of the girl’s lover Astaranga Sahoo, who was a student of an engineering college in Berhampur.

Nearly six months ago, investigating on a complaint, the police busted a pornography film-making racket with the arrest of one Ranjit Parida, a 32-year-old transporter of Bidanasi.

The police seized a porn film CD involving him and a girl of the same locality.