As India protests rapes, sex-assault videos sell for 12 paise a clip

"820+ videos for 99 rupees," flashed a notification message from the seller of rape videos.

Hundreds of men and women marched across the country, protesting against the murder and rape of a 31-year-old trainee doctor in Kolkata in August. In the darkness of the night, flaming torches and mobile phones illuminated the faces of the people seeking justice.

In another corner of India, a mobile phone illuminated the face of a Telegram user. The message flashed, "rape videos available at low prices". What was on sale was a collection of dark pornographic content, including rape videos, child porn and various other categories of disturbing sex-assault videos.

These videos are sold in bulk.

As if revealing the dichotomy in our society, each time a horrific rape case stirs the nation's conscience, searches for videos of sex assault related to that case surge too.

The sale of rape videos is not new. Several senior police officers told IndiaToday.In that these videos were earlier shared through CDs and pen drives in dingy corners of towns and cities in India. But with the coming of the internet, sellers have now transitioned to encrypted apps, and there is no stopping the clips once they go online.

These videos are made easily accessible. All because of the internet.

Earlier, such videos used to be on the dark web. Only someone trawling the internet with a special browser and using alternative means of payment, like Bitcoins, would have access to them.

With Telegram and other end-to-end encrypted apps, such videos have come to the surface. Even the commerce around sex assault videos has become simpler now, with sellers accepting payments through online modes like credit cards, PayPal and UPI.

There are several questions that emerge here. Why do searches for case-specific videos surge with every sensational rape case? Why are these videos shot, and how do they end up online? How big is the demand and at what rate are these rape videos sold online?

SEEN JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG, ADMIT COPS

Whenever a rape case gets highlighted, there is a genuine interest to search for information on it and gather information.

But there is a dark side to the searches too.

Research of Google Trends data by IndiaToday.In reveals that when such cases make the headlines, there is a surge in searches for rape videos of those incidents.

Be it of the trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August, the systematic sex assaults that former Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna was accused of in May, or of the women raped and paraded naked in Manipur in 2023, each of them saw searches for videos related to the cases surge immediately after the incidents became big news.

"There is a huge market for rape videos, and we have just seen the tip of the iceberg," a senior Delhi Police officer tells IndiaToday.In. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because not much research had been done on the issue.

These rape videos are part of a big tranche of violent sexual content circulating on the internet and there is a demand-and-supply chain at play here. The videos are circulated online because there is an increasing demand for them, and the demand is being sustained because such videos are readily available now.

"The lack of consent does not matter to people watching these rape videos because humans can easily disassociate themselves and watch others being violent and facing violence. This is true till it is not them or their loved ones. Disassociation is a tool they use," Dr Sneha Sharma, consultant psychiatrist at Anvaya Healthcare, tells IndiaToday.In.

"But these rape videos are part of a larger issue in our social system, which is normalising watching videos where a person is being raped," she points out.

HOW VIDEO SEARCHES GO UP AFTER SENSATIONAL RAPE CASES

Following the rape and murder of the trainee doctor at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, there has been a surge in demand for videos of the attack. While some of these searches may be driven by curiosity due to the incident's notoriety, certain keyword searches suggest that people are specifically seeking out the video of the assault.

This is evident from the numerous groups on the encrypted messaging app Telegram which use the victim's name, her picture and even include the word "rape" in their titles.

A detailed examination of such keywords on Google Trends paints a clearer picture of the trend.

Following the rape and murder of the trainee doctor at RG Kar on August 9, keywords such as, 'rg kar viral video', 'dr ****** ****** video', and 'dr ******* ****** video real' have seen a jump in Google search.

A similar search spike was noticed after former Janata Dal (Secular) MP Prajwal Revanna faced charges of serial sexual attacks on women in May.

Google trends data shows keywords like 'prajwal revanna video' and 'prajwal revanna video download' shot up after the case snowballed, with more than 3,000 video clips and photos of the sex scandal being leaked.

Similar trends were also seen for the search words 'Manipur women video' and 'Manipur women parade video download' after horrifying reports of two women being raped and paraded naked in Manipur last year.

The search for such content is not just limited to India but is seen from abroad, including users from Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the UAE.

ONLINE PORN VIDEO SELLERS USE KEYWORDS TO PUSH CLIPS

Actual videos of the crime might not exist in every case, but the keywords are used as bait by those who sell rape videos online to peddle unrelated sex assault and other pornographic content.

IndiaToday.In came across four groups with thousands of subscribers on Telegram on the Kolkata rape-murder case. Some of them were even using the name and image of the victim, revealing how the sellers of rape videos lure people wanting to watch the assault clips.

One of the groups, with 3,300 subscribers and featuring the RG Kar victim's photo, says, "message delete hone se pahle sab dekh lo kya hua tha us raat Dr ******* ke sath". The bait message translates to 'Watch what Dr ******* faced that night before this message gets deleted'.

The link shared with the message reads, "All the leaked photos and videos of Dr *******".

The link, however, redirects to a third party cloud-based platform, TeraBox, with just a video of actor Priyanka Chopra reacting to the tragic incident at RG Kar Medical College.

However, Telegram is where most of the videos are being sold and shared. That Telegram is permitting the sale of rape videos, child pornography, drug trafficking, among several other illegal activities, is a well-known fact.

Telegram, playing host to the sale and purchase of such illegal content, is one of the reasons its CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last week.

THE MARKET FOR RAPE VIDEOS IN INDIA

On another group on Telegram, 'dr ******* *******cctv video', a seller has put out a list of various categories of videos involving 'rape', 'child porn', 'animal porn', 'forced sex', 'young girl', 'incest' and several other categories.

Along with the list of categories, are the corresponding rates for each category with hundreds and thousands of videos.

As part of the investigation, IndiaToday.In interacted with a seller named 'Dorimon'.

The seller said he had more than 820 rape videos to offer for just Rs 99.

This translates to just 12 paise for a single video. This is how dirt cheap rape videos are being sold online.

'Dorimon' even shared a Paytm QR-code for the payment transaction.

On being asked how he collected so many videos of all these categories, 'Dorimon' replied, "I have also bought them from different sellers".

However, the sellers are not just confined to India. Telegram is full of foreign sellers selling rape and child rape videos to Indians.

A Portuguese seller, 'Cpmega', told IndiaToday.In that he had 50 rape videos to offer for a premium price of $20 (Rs 1,700).

The 50 videos he promised were a mix of Indian and foreign rape videos.

"Do you have PayPal?" 'Cpmega' asked while discussing payment options. He also added that a credit card could also work for the payment.

HOW RAPE VIDEOS ARE SHOT AND SPREAD

The senior Delhi Police officer quoted earlier provides information that explains how and why these rape videos are shot and how they spread, to eventually reach online sellers like 'Dorimon'.

"One of the common features in rape complaints these days is that the perpetrators have filmed the crime," the officer tells IndiaToday.In.

These videos, mostly shot to blackmail the rape survivors into silence or even extract money, are initially shared among a close group. There's no stopping these videos once they are leaked. Once out of the small group, the videos get circulated rapidly, and then end up on the open market.

Physical markets in Delhi's shady Palika Bazar are a hotbed of the trade of such videos of rape and forced sex, according to experts. The by lanes of Lucknow's Hazratganj are equally infamous for the same.

"Another situation that is becoming common is that rape complaints are filed after a family member or relative of the survivor comes across videos of the assault. The women in these cases don't come forward, but it is the family members who bring them to file complaints after seeing the clips," says the police officer.

The senior cop's remarks also highlight how widely these rape videos get circulated to reach the families of the survivors.

The officer also says that school cabs and van drivers are the points from where pornographic videos reach schoolkids.

WHO WATCHES THESE RAPE VIDEOS AND WHY?

There are several factors why people watch such videos.

"There is no instinct that makes a specific kind of people watch such videos. These people are among us. But the social systems are to be blamed," Delhi-based consultant psychiatrist Sneha Sharma says.

The social systems that Sharma is referring to include lack of sex education and a taboo around talking about sex to young people. For many people, pornography and even rape videos are how they are their first introduced to sex.

"The violence in the culture is penetrating into our minds. I have many clients who have some violent sexual urges," Dr Sharma tells IndiaToday.in. Those going for treatment would be a fraction of the millions with these urges.

Violence in sex gets normalised with the circulation of videos involving non-consensual and violent sexual relationships.

"We do not know what all people are thinking and consuming in their private life and are even going through. Even the ones who look normal to us might be socially deviant," says Dr Sharma.

HOW CAN THE SCOURGE OF RAPE VIDEOS BE CURBED?

The legal action against the sale of videos can be taken under Section 294 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) wherein sale or purchase of such videos is prohibited.

But it is difficult to track the source of people selling these videos on Telegram.

But not all rape videos might be authentic.

"Circulating such videos isn't possible on Facebook or Instagram because of Meta's policy. On WhatsApp and Telegram, both encrypted apps, all kinds of videos are shared," says a senior UP cybercrime cop, explaining the difference between the platforms.

"I do not think that all the videos available are genuine," the officer says, indicating that some of the clips could be enactments. "We also have to check if deepfakes are being used to create such videos before reaching any conclusion," the officer adds.

If not all but an alarming majority of the rape videos circulating on the internet are genuine, say police officers and experts. They also suggest that artificial intelligence (AI) could come in handy to weed out these clips.

"Yes, there are rape videos circulating online. Even child pornography used to be circulated, but a filter was created to eliminate such content. AI became an ally here. It was used to filter out all child pornographic content. Now there is a national gateway against such videos," says Triveni Singh, former SP of UP's cybercrime department.

A similar filter can be created against rape videos too, he suggests.

"The government should make a national filter against rape videos also. This will solve the problem of circulation on all the platforms. This is the only way to fix it," says cyber-crime expert Singh.

The search for specific sex-assault videos even as people are protesting those incidents reveals the dichotomy in our society. The answer to such problems doesn't lie in stringent laws but in societal transformation, which can only come about with a change in mindsets. Though technology has made rape videos accessible, it is technology itself which holds the answer as to how the circulation of such videos can be blocked.