Five men have been arrested in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a 15-year-old girl in Assam's Biswanath district. The girl was gang-raped multiple times in a moving vehicle over several months before being rescued by the police last week.
Speaking to reporters, Biswanath Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Dipti Mali said that the group of locals intercepted a suspicious vehicle and rescued the girl from an area under the jurisdiction of the Biswanath Chariali Police Station.
"The locals informed that the girl and the occupants of the car were found in a compromising, half-naked state. The girl later revealed that she was subjected to forceful sexual intercourse by multiple men inside that moving vehicle," Mali said.
A case has been registered under sections 140(3) (abduction) and 70(2) (gang-rape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, along with section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The girl told the police that it began months ago, when she was offered food by two men and was asked to get in their car, where two to three men gang-raped her.
All five accused were produced before a local court after their arrest on May 30. Further investigation is underway. The police have confirmed that the vehicle they used has been seized.
Traumatised over the incident, the girl's family members have demanded immediate and exemplary punishment for the accused.
