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Bengaluru police are trying to collect evidence against Varun Kumar after the India international hockey player was charged with rape.
Varun, who won the prestigious Arjuna award back in 2021, was accused by a woman of sexually exploiting her when she was a minor.
The Bengaluru Police charged Kumar with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The police are going through call detail records, messages and voice notes between the alleged victim and Kumar to mount their case.
"We are investigating the case and are collecting the required evidence. We have not approached Kumar yet. He is out of Karnataka, so we will be contacting him soon to join the probe. We have not sent any teams to his place where he is currently undergoing training. If he comes, fine, or we will have to send our team there," a senior police officer was quoted as saying to PTI.
"We have already started collecting evidence. We are scanning through messages exchanged between the victim and Kumar, the voice notes, call detail records. We would also be approaching their mutual friends to record statements," he added.
How did the incident between Varun Kumar and the minor unfold?
As per the girl, who is 22 years old, she met Varun through an Instagram post back in 2018. She said that she came in touch with the hockey star when Varun was training at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Bengaluru.
The girl, who was reportedly 17 in 2018, said that Varun raped her multiple times with promises of marrying her. The girl said that Varun entered into physical relations with her after taking her to a hotel in Bengaluru's Jayanagar in July 2019 despite knowing that she was a minor.
The woman said that the hockey player started avoiding her and stopped responding to her messages after her father passed away. She also said that Varun threatened to upload her images on social media if she kept putting him under pressure regarding marriage.
