Paradip: Police on Monday arrested a 30-year-old man, who had allegedly sexually assaulted a minor girl and uploaded objectionable video on social media to make it viral.

The arrested man, identified as Himanshu Pradhan is a native of Balrampur village in the Kujang police station jurisdictions. He is reportedly a history-sheeter.

At least four criminal cases pertaining to robbery and extortion had been pending against him, said Kujang police station inspector Dillip Kumar Sahu.

The accused had befriended the girl while posing himself as the employee of a corporate house. As the relationship grew, they got involved in the physical relationship. The police said that later, with a motive to blackmail the girl, Pradhan had made videos of their intimate moments on his smart phone.

But when the girl came to know about Pradhan's criminal antecedents, she severed relationship with him.

Dejected at being spurned by her, Pradhan had later uploaded the video on social media, making it viral, the inspector said.

The police started an investigation into the case following a complaint lodged by the girl's father a couple of days ago. The cyber crime wing of district police found veracity of the allegation.

After prima facie was found, the accused was arrested, and during interrogation, he confessed to have committed the crime.

Pradhan was booked under Indian Penal Code sections 354 (outraging the modesty of woman or girl), 292 (representation of person or any other object in obscene manner), 294 (obscene act), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act, 2012, the Information Technology Act sections 67 and 67 (a). Later, Pradhan was remanded in judicial custody.

As directed by state police headquarters, the district police are maintaining zero tolerance in cases of obscene photos or videos going viral on social media, the police said.

Chain snatchers

Police arrested two chain-snatchers from a busy marketplace in the port town on Monday.

The duo - Biswanath Nayak and Sanatan Mohapatra - was involved in a number of chain snatching cases in the port town area. Two stolen gold chains were recovered from their possession. They have been remanded in judicial custody.