16-year-old girl held captive for a week and gang-raped by six, including two minors, found in a state of shock
A teenage girl was reportedly held captive for nearly five days and raped repeatedly by six men and boys in the latest sexual assault case that has sparked national outrage in India.
The incident came to light when the 16-year-old victim was found in a state of shock at a bus station on Saturday night, in Ongole, Andhra Pradesh.
As the heinous incident grabbed national headlines, the political leaders of Andhra Pradesh have vowed to take strict action against the perpetrators in the case.
Andhra Pradesh Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha released a statement, saying: "This is a heinous crime and we will take deterrent steps to ensure such incidents did not recur."
State legislator for Ongole and Andhra Pradesh Energy Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy also slammed the incident.
Local police officers said that seven suspects have been arrested in the incident, out of which four are engineering students and three of them are minors, the Times of India reported.
Prakasam District Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal, while addressing the media on Sunday, said that one of the suspects had gained the girl's trust while she was waiting for a friend at the station on June 17. The man reportedly told her that he knew her friend and then took her to his room and allegedly raped her.
He held the girl captive there for a week and called five of his friends who also raped her. The girl was eventually dumped at the bus station and her abductor reportedly made threats against her if she reported the crime to the police, according to the outlet.
However, the Press Trust of India reported that the girl escaped her captors and made her own way back to the bus station.
She was noticed standing there by a security guard who called the police.
When officers reached the scene, they found the victim in a state of shock.
However, after counseling, she reportedly gave them an account of her ordeal over the past five days.
The case has reportedly been opened under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The District Superintendent of Police has reportedly vowed that the assailants would be brought to justice.