In a chilling exploitation of technology, Brajesh Kushwaha, an illiterate former mill worker, used a voice-changing app to pose as a female professor, luring and sexually assaulting seven tribal college students from Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district.
Despite lacking formal education, Kushwaha devised a sinister scheme to exploit his victims. He used a voice-changing app to impersonate a female professor, promising students scholarships for further education. Speaking in a woman’s voice, Kushwaha instructed the students to meet a man in a deserted area who would take them to her house on a motorcycle. Instead, Kushwaha himself would arrive, leading the students into a forest where he raped them.
The police revealed that the survivors reported their assailant always wore a helmet and gloves, making him difficult to identify. This crucial detail led authorities to Kushwaha, who had distinctive burn marks on his hands from a previous job at a rolling mill in Maharashtra.
Kushwaha was arrested on Saturday, alongside three alleged accomplices. In a decisive move, the Sidhi district administration demolished his house with a bulldozer.
Inspector General of Police Mahendra Sikarwar stated, “A woman reported that she was raped after being lured with the promise of a scholarship. Our investigation led us to Brajesh Kushwaha, who confessed to using a voice-changing app to impersonate a woman. We have also apprehended his three accomplices.”
The cyber cell issued an advisory, urging the public to be vigilant about the misuse of voice-changing apps. Authorities emphasized the importance of being cautious with technology to prevent such crimes.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has established a nine-member special investigation team, led by a female deputy superintendent of police, to further investigate Kushwaha’s activities and determine if more women were targeted.