Dance teacher held for molesting, blackmailing minor girl in UP

Kanpur, Dec 22 (IANS) A dance teacher has been arrested for sexually exploiting a minor girl who was his student.

The accused, Himanshu Soni, was also blackmailing the girl by making her obscene videos.

The matter came to light when the girl transferred an amount of Rs 20,000 from her father's bank account.

Her father lodged a complaint regarding the missing money from the bank account.

The Cyber cell of the crime branch found that the money had been transferred into the account of the accused.

During further investigation, the police also recovered obscene videos and several pictures of 14 more girls from the mobile phone of the accused.

On the complaint of the girls' mother, the police have registered a case against the accused under sections of rape (376), unnatural sex (377) of IPC, POCSO Act and IT Act (389).

According to the police, a 13-year-old girl, a resident of a locality under Govind Nagar police station, used to attend dance classes along with her landlord's daughter.

"A few months ago, about Rs 20,000 were withdrawn from her father's bank account through online transactions. On December 17, her father had filed a report under sections of fraud and IT Act at Govind Nagar police station," said police.

Inspector Govind Nagar Rohit Tiwari said that Cyber cell and crime branch were investigating the case. "During investigation, it came to fore that the amount was transferred to the account of one Jaswant, a resident of Dabhauli, through UPI. When the team questioned him, he said that his friend Himanshu Soni, a resident of Dabhauli, who runs a dance class in a city locality, had transferred the fees of a student to his account through UPI," said the inspector.

Tiwari said that after finding out about the minor girl from the dance teacher, he questioned her with the assistance of a female constable.

"Then the teenage girl apprised them that her dance teacher had misbehaved with her and made her obscene videos and photos. He used to ask for money from her and was threatening to defame her by making her videos and pictures viral if she did not give him the money. Out of fear, she transferred money from her father's mobile through UPI," he said.