POCSO case filed against hockey player Varun Kumar in B’luru

Karnataka Police have booked hockey player Varun Kumar under the POCSO Act following a complaint by a 22-year-old airline staff.

Jnanabharthi police in Bengaluru city have lodged the FIR against Kumar under the provisions of Section 4 (2), 5 (L), 6 of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act and IPC Section 376 (3) for raping woman under 16 years of age and 420 (cheating).

In the complaint, the victim has stated that the accused had raped and sexually exploited her since the age of 16 years promising her of marriage. “One year ago after the demise of my father, the accused came to pacify me and afterwards stopped calling me, avoiding my calls. When I decided to lodge a police complaint, he again started talking to me.

"When I asked him for the marriage, the accused said both should remain as they are without marriage. The accused threatened that if I insisted on marriage and troubled him, he would post her photos on social media,” the complainant stated in her complaint.

"The victim from Hyderabad was getting trained at the Sports Authority of India Coaching Centre in Jnanabharathi, Bengaluru after being selected as a trainee in Volleyball .... at the age of 16 years. She was staying at the women's hostel. The accused got introduced to her on Instagram and was messaging her.

"The accused hockey player at that time was getting trained in a national camp in the same campus. “Since I was a minor, I did not respond to his messages. The accused sent his friends to me to become close, I did not respond. The accused sent frequent messages to me, he cried and maintained that he won’t be alive without me.

"After his friends assured me that they would guard me as their sister, I finally agreed to meet him. In the meeting the accused forced me to get married to him, I rejected the offer. The accused maintained that he will make my family agree for our marriage and said until then we will stay as friends,” the victim stated in her complaint.

“In ..., he took me for dinner to a hotel in Jayanagar Fourth Block. After dinner he took me forcefully to the room. Even as I told the accused that I was a minor, have two elder sisters and a younger one, he forcefully got into a sexual act.

"After believing in promises of marriage for five years I loved him. He had taken me to various hotels across Bengaluru for years and sexually exploited me,” she alleges.

The police sources stated that they will verify the statements of the victim and initiate legal action against the accused person.