Bengaluru: College student alleges gangrape at private villa, two booked
Bengaluru (PTI): A case of gangrape has been registered against two men after a 19-year-old college student alleged that they sexually assaulted her after forcibly administering her a tablet, police said on Monday.
She claimed that the incident occurred at a private villa here on February 15, but that she did not approach the police earlier out of fear, they said.
A day before the woman approached Amruthahalli police station with her complaint on February 22, a case was registered against her at the Malleshwaram police station following a complaint by the two accused.
They alleged that she, along with a male acquaintance, was attempting to extort Rs 10 lakh from them on the pretext of certain video clips, a senior police officer said.
“Based on the statement of the student in our case, we have registered a case under Sections 64 (rape), 70(1) (gangrape), 351(2) (criminal intimidation) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. We are investigating the case based on the allegations levelled by both parties, following which appropriate action will be taken,” he said.
According to the complaint lodged at Amruthahalli Police Station, the woman, who is pursuing her first-year degree at a city college, stated that she became acquainted with one of the accused through Instagram in January 2026. The two had met a couple of times at a café in Koramangala and were in regular contact over phone and social media.
On February 14, after attending college, she went out for dinner with a friend. Later that night, the accused allegedly asked her to come to a villa in Jakkur for a party. She reached the villa around 1.15 am along with her friend, where the accused and another man were present, the FIR said.
In her complaint, the woman alleged that the two men forcibly put a pink-coloured tablet into her mouth. Within minutes, she felt dizzy, experienced sweating and blurred vision, and lost consciousness.
She further alleged that when she regained partial consciousness inside a room, one of the men was touching her inappropriately. Both men then allegedly sexually assaulted her against her will despite her resistance, the FIR stated.
The woman also alleged that the accused later locked her inside the room and, the next day, dropped her near a mall while threatening her with dire consequences if she disclosed the incident to anyone or approached the police.
Police said the complainant sought medical treatment at a city hospital on February 17. After informing her brother, who encouraged her to approach the police, she lodged a complaint with a delay, citing fear due to the alleged threats.
Further investigation is underway, police said.
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Union government assumes full control over TV ratings, TRAI role curtailed: Report
New Delhi: The Union government has assumed full control over television audience measurement, removing the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) from oversight of the ratings system that underpins the country’s ₹36,000 crore television advertising market, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report in Mint said the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) now has exclusive authority over the framework governing how television ratings are measured and regulated. TRAI had been entrusted with oversight of TV ratings in 2012 during the UPA government’s tenure. TRAI is no longer mentioned in the relevant policy document, effectively vesting sole authority in the MIB.
The report said TRAI will continue to regulate other aspects of broadcasting, including channel pricing, advertising caps, interconnection and distribution norms, service quality and compliance standards. Its role in determining how ratings agencies track viewing behaviour has been withdrawn.
Television Rating Points (TRPs), which reflect viewership patterns, guide advertisers in deciding where to allocate spending across channels and time slots.
A government source quoted in the report said the ministry could modify TRAI’s decisions even when the regulator oversaw broadcasting.
A former CEO of Prasar Bharati told the newspaper that the MIB has historically regulated rating agencies through licensing and guidelines, and by holding them accountable under existing norms.
During its tenure overseeing ratings, TRAI had taken decisions affecting the broadcast sector, which included capping advertising time at 12 minutes per hour following complaints about excessive commercial breaks and it now remains unclear how these matters will be addressed under the revised arrangement.
Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at TRAI, was quoted as saying that merging regulatory functions with policy oversight and removing an independent regulator from the process was a retrograde step.
TRAI’s involvement in broadcasting had earlier attracted criticism as well. In 2012, its consultation paper on quantitative limits on television advertising was viewed by some as overlapping with the Advertising Standards Council of India’s code. Subsequent recommendations covering television audience measurement, ownership of news channels and issues such as paid news had also raised concerns among sections of the industry.
Television ratings have faced scrutiny in recent years, including during the controversy involving the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC), where officials of the ratings body were prosecuted over allegations of manipulation of viewership data.
