Six booked, three detained in Mandar Hill assault
A group of young men allegedly surrounded a woman at Mandar Hill, a historic tourist and pilgrimage site in Bihar’s Banka district, grabbed her, abused her and struck her with a slipper.
At the same time, companions were shoved and held by their collars. One man is seen with a stick. The episode was filmed. The clip later spread online with a song overlay that appeared to glorify the conduct.
That footage, not a contemporaneous complaint from the victim, is what finally forced official action. The video, dated 3 September, only reached the Bounsi police on 22 September at about 2:45 p.m. through the district social media cell on WhatsApp, sent to Station House Officer Pankaj Kumar Jha. Within minutes, senior officers sent a team to the hill. By around 3 pm, police had matched the locations in the video to Mandar Hill and started questioning people in the area.
None at the scene could immediately identify the men or the woman. Jha filed a suo motu FIR against six unidentified youths, using the video as the main evidence. The FIR lists Sections 74, 75, 76, and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, along with Sections 66E and 67A of the Information Technology Act. Section 74 covers assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, punishable by one to five years in prison and a fine; Section 75 deals with sexual harassment, including unwelcome physical contact and sexually coloured remarks.
Section 76 is the most serious: assault or criminal force, or helping with it, with intent to disrobe a woman or force her to be naked, which carries three to seven years in prison and a fine. Section 3(5) makes all participants with a shared intention responsible, so police named six men as unknown accused before matching faces.
The IT sections focus on recording and sharing the video. Section 66E covers capturing or sending images that violate privacy, while Section 67A deals with publishing or sharing sexually explicit material online. After the FIR was filed, the identification process moved faster.
Police later identified three men from the video: Abdullah, Nitish Kumar Rai, and Vikas Kumar, all from the Barahat police station area. Investigators say the woman went to the hill with two friends. The accused allegedly grabbed, abused, and threatened them, and forced one companion to transfer Rs 1,500 through PhonePe before letting them go. By 25 September, Banka Superintendent of Police Amitesh Kumar said police had detained the three men and were questioning them. Raids continued for others seen in the video. Kumar said police first filed an FIR against unknown persons because neither the victim nor her friends were identified at first. Police later took the victim’s statement.
This is the third viral case from Bihar in a few days, after similar videos from Jamui and Samastipur. This pattern, more than the new criminal code, explains why Banka is getting political attention. Mandar Hill is a well-known spot for pilgrims and tourists. However, the first reliable report of the assault came almost three weeks after the date shown on the video.
Some police briefings suggest the incident could have happened months earlier if the video was recorded on 3 June instead of 3 September. Officials have mentioned both dates. What is worrying is the fact that a public crime at a well-known place went unreported until a phone video spread beyond the original group.
