Dhanbad (Jharkhand): Police have arrested six of the seven accused for allegedly raping a minor girl in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district, an officer said on Thursday.
A 14-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her minor lover and six of his friends over two days since Sunday evening in the Dhansar area of the district.
One of them also shot the crime on a mobile phone, the police officer said.
Dhansar police station in-charge Manoj Pandey said that the six of the seven accused, including the lover of the victim, have been arrested. Of the six, two are reportedly minors, while four others are adults.
“They will be produced before the court on Thursday,” he said.
According to the victim's statement, her lover called her at Dhanbad railway station on Sunday evening and took her to a house in Duhatand where he raped her along with a friend.
The accused locked her in a room after committing the crime.
The next evening, five other friends of her lover raped her in a bush near that house, the victim told the police.
After hearing the girl's cries for help, locals went to the spot but by then all the accused had fled, the police officer said.
When police raided the house of the girl's lover, they did not find anyone there. The police are also trying to locate the whereabouts of the victim's family.
The victim, currently lodged in a shelter home in Dhanbad, is undergoing counselling by the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
CWC chairman Uttam Mukherjee said that efforts are on to convince her to get the details of her family members but she is not cooperating.
The victim claimed that her parents had already died and her younger sister lives in Bihar.
“She also claimed that she lives with her uncle in Bihar. She, however, refused to share his name and residential address. We are also trying to find out how she reached Dhanbad from Bihar,” Mukherjee said.
A police officer associated with the investigation said the girl's statements were misleading the probe.
"Now, we are banking on the interrogation of the accused lover to get details of the girl,” he said.