Five men have been arrested for raping a 15-year-old girl from Assam’s Biswanath district multiple times in a moving car over several months before she was rescued by police last week, officials said Wednesday.
Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP), Deepti Mali, told HT that the matter came to light on May 26 after a group of local residents intercepted a suspicious vehicle and rescued the victim from an area under the jurisdiction of Biswanath Chariali police station.
Mali said: “Local residents reported that the girl and the car’s passengers were found in a miserable condition. The girl later revealed that she had been subjected to a strong sexual intercourse by several men inside that moving car.”
Police said the survivor was provided immediate shelter, but the main accused managed to escape and was arrested later the same day, while four others were arrested between May 28 and 30.
“After the first arrest, our manhunt continued. Although she was in severe distress and could not name everyone, she was able to identify their homes because she had been taken there in the past. Based on this information, we arrested four more between May 28 and 30,” an official said.
After her rescue, the police registered a case under Sections 140 (3) (kidnapping) and 70 (2) (gang rape) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act, 2023, along with Section 6 (aggravated penetrative sexual assault) of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act.
The survivor said that the ordeal began months ago when two men offered her food and asked her to get into their car, where she was then raped by two or three men.
A senior officer said that the five accused, aged between 19 and 23, belonged to the same area as the survivor and had allegedly taken advantage of her family’s weak financial situation.
“She was lured with food and sometimes money. She surrendered because her family’s financial situation was bleak, and the exploitation continued for several months,” the officer said, adding that the survivor was assaulted inside the moving car and in multiple homes.
The police added: “She is suffering from severe trauma and cannot remember specific dates, but she stated that she was repeatedly assaulted, sometimes by two or three men, and sometimes by one or two men. This happened regularly. Even the day before her rescue, she was raped inside the same moving car.”
Mali said the victim has since been transferred to a government shelter, where an investigation revealed inadequate care and supervision at the home.
“Local residents told us that sometimes she does not return home for days, and the family remains indifferent. She is only 15 years old, and we believe she will be safer and better cared for in a shelter until she turns 18. However, the final decision rests with the court,” Mali said.
The five defendants were brought before a local court after the final arrest on May 30, and investigations are still ongoing. The police confirmed that the car used in the crime had been found.
“We have obtained strong forensic and circumstantial evidence from the vehicle. The houses indicated by the victim are also being searched,” an investigating officer said, adding that statements of the victim, the accused and available witnesses are being recorded to ensure a comprehensive chargesheet is filed quickly.
The victim’s family expressed their deep shock over the incident and demanded immediate and exemplary punishment of the accused.
