A 16-year-old girl was raped by a 39-year-old pastor of a church in Songadh taluka in Tapi district of Gujarat. Shockingly, the wife of the pastor in question took videos and photos of the alleged sexual assault to blackmail the minor, reports Mirror Now.

The rape occurred in May, but a complaint regarding it was registered at Songadh police station on December 28. Subsequently, pastor Baliram Kokni and his wife Anita were arrested and produced in a local court which sent them to police custody for four days.

The 16-year-old girl works as a farm labourer. “The accused developed contact with the minor when she came for prayers at the church with her parents. He then called her alone to meet and allegedly raped her,” the report adds.

Anita took photos and videos of the alleged sexual assault. The teenager, in her complaint, stated that she had been blackmailed with the pictures and video clips. Police, therefore, suspect that initially, the minor did not file a complaint against the accused as she feared that the video clips and photographs would be circulated on social media.

This comes days after a six-year-old girl was raped by Shahbaz (26) in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district. The minor was on her way to school when the accused lured her to a dilapidated building and sexually assaulted her. The survivor later returned home and told her parents about the incident, following which a case was registered and the accused was arrested.