Mr Chief Justice, this is India's new porn clip capital

While KG Balakrishnan wants to ban porn sites in India, at least six popular sex clips online have come from Uttarakhand in the last year or so, ruining lives of unsuspecting youngsters. Half-a-dozen culprits are in jail, but the crime goes on

A SONG from Bipasha Basu-starrer Raaz throbs in the background as two students in their early twenties make out, oblivious to the spy camera catching their action.

The protagonists in the ten-minute clip, now on various sex blogs, are from an engineering college in Dehradun. Though the incident dates back to 2006, the clip was posted on the Internet last month, making it the sixth or seventh popular sex video from that region in about a year.

So, while Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan said on Sunday that there was an urgent need to ban sex websites, porn's breeding ground has been flourishing barely 250 km from New Delhi, Balakrishnan's seat of authority. Uttarakhand, home to politician ND Tiwari whose sexcapades recently blazed prime-time television, is India's new sleaze-MMS capital.

Avdhash Kaushal, Chairperson of Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK), a Dehradun-based NGO also

working for human rights, said, "MMS scandals have certainly increased in Dehradun in the last couple of years. There could be many reasons behind it. The increase in tourism in the city could be one probable reason."

"The city is also an educational hub where students from across the country come to study. Being a small place it is often believed that it is easy to get off after doing such crime which is not generally true," he added.

Incidentally, India's homebred sex sites Debonairblog and fsiblog rank highly among voyeurs in India. As per Alexa, web-stat company, Debonairblog.com occupies 50th position and fsiblog.com is ranked at 144 in terms of traffic among all websites viewed in India. On a global scale these websites were ranked 595 and 1,748 respectively. Compared to livejasmin.com, a top rated US-based adult website, it holds 56th position in India whereas its global ranking is 34.

While sex as adult entertainment is accepted in some countriesu00a0-- the US has porn companies listed on the stock exchangeu00a0-- the taboo and legal barriers associated with sex filming in India ensures that such videos are made shabbily and surreptitiously, almost always involving unsuspecting girls or couples.

Dehra Doom
In case of the latest Dehradun sex clip video with the Raaz song, college authorities of the students are in denial. And as nobody has come forward to file a complaint, the police are also sitting easy.
Both the students graduated from the institute last year.

"It happened at some place in Prem Nagar and that is why it is known as the Prem Nagar kaand. Very little details are known about who recorded the clip and who leaked it on the Internet," a final-year student of the college told MiD DAY, requesting anonymity. "Some people tried to take up the issue with the college authorities. But the college officials are in denial and are trying to hush up the matter."

The college director refused to comment on the issue, saying no such complaint had been lodged and he was unaware of the controversy if there was any.

The sex clip shows a boy entering a room followed by his girlfriend. The boy switches on the television and a hit song from Bipasha Basu's Raaz starts playing. The girl, who is in her college uniform, undresses first. Clothes are shown scattered in the room. The clip has been uploaded on a sex blog in three parts.

Just the trailer
When MID DAY contacted Dehradun SSP Abhinav Kumar, he was not available for comment. However a senior police official, on condition of anonymity, said, "In the last couple of years we have received some complaints of MMS scandals. We have lodged a FIR in all such cases. However we can't take any action in such cases as it's difficult to track the exact location."

Sex on the bus
In May 2009, a sex clip featuring a schoolgirl became the talk of the town. The girl had an alleged affair with the conductor of a local transport bus. The man recorded the clip on his phone and then circulated the MMS. However, before he could post it on the Internet the police acted on a complaint by the girl's family.
The conductor is now serving time.

One that backfired
In December 2009, a woman lodged a complaint against an Army jawan of blackmailing her. She had an affair with the soldier before she was married to another man. However, the jawan had a sex clip of the woman which he used to blackmail her for sex. A case was filed against the army officer and he is now lodged in the district jail.

SEX TALES FROM UTTARAKHAND

Other districts of Uttarakhand have also reported sex clips in the recent past.
Chamoli, 2009: A college girl was filmed while making out in a car. Four friends of the boy recorded it on their mobiles. The girl lodged a police complaint after the clip was circulated. While two accused were let off for lack of evidence, two were convicted and are in jail.
Haridwar, 2008: A couple were roaming the outskirts of the Sureshwari Devi forest near a sports stadium at Sector 5, BHEL, when culprits beat up the boy and tied him to a tree. They beat up the girl too and forced her to undress in front of her boyfriend and filmed the entire sequence. Cops took up the matter when the media flashed the story. They sent the clip to the special cyber cell of the Special Task Force in Dehradun to identify people in the clip. A state secretariat official and forest guards were involved. Both the accused, Paramjit u00a0Singh and Chatter Singh, are now in jail.
Haridwar, 2007: A teacher from Gurukul Kanya Mahavidyalaya was filmed in the nude by some college employees. A police case was lodged and matter went before the court. However, in 2009 the accused were let off for lack of evidence.
Shrinagar in Garhwal, 2006: A 22-year-old college girl was forcibly stripped by three men at a public call booth. Two of the accused were college friends of the victim. They shot a sex clip and circulated over cellphones. The girl went to the police but they refused to lodge a complaint. However, when the locals took up the issue, the accused were arrested and a police official suspended.

XXX-VIDEO NATION

Jalgaon: The Jalgoan rape case rocked Maharashtra in 1993. About 20 girls aged 12-20 were blackmailed, raped and videotaped. Jalgaon Municipal Corporation were involved. Main accused Pandit Sapkale went on appeal after serving four years in prison and is now out on bail.
TISS rape: Six students of Mumbai's Tata Institute of Social Sciences were accused of raping a foreign student on April 17, 2009. While an accused has been granted bail, five are still in judicial custody.
Mysore MMS: Made in Mangalore in 2007, it showed three young girls in the act. The initial letters of their names of their cities made up the titleu00a0-- MMSu00a0-- the first one from Mysore, the second from Mangalore and the third from Sullya in Karnataka. The Mysore girl who shot the MMS is now in a remand home since she is a minor. The Mangalore girl is married and settled. The Sullya girl who was a student was thrown out of her home but later accepted. She is now with her parents. No case has been registered in this incident.
Mysore Mallige: The 2003 video was shot by the guy seen in the clip himself. Both of them were from Hassan and were engineering students. The boy who shot the video took the cassette to make a CD and from where it got circulated. The police arrested the boy and three others who circulated it. They later got bail. Initially, a case was booked against the the couple, but as they agreed to get married, the case was closed. They have now settled abroad.
Mungaru Male: In Mangalore, 2007, a sex worker shot a customer with a hidden camera while having sex in the hotel room. No case was registered. The couple are absconding.
Noida sex clip: A final year-MBA student in a prestigious institute in Noida was caught stripping and dancing for the camera in 2008. Her boyfriend has been charged for videotaping her and circulating the clip. He is out on bail.
Delhi school clip: In 2004, students of a posh Delhi school were caught making out. The girl later settled in Canada.

Inputs by J Dey and Aditya Anand

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