A teenage girl was allegedly repeatedly gang-raped by her school principal, headmaster, a teacher and a deputy forest ranger in India.
Police in the Manendragarh-Chirmiri-Bharatpur district of the central state of Chhattisgarh said on Tuesday they had arrested all four government officials accused of raping the 17-year-old girl, who is a member of a tribal community, at least twice earlier this month and filming the attacks.
“If police find more people were involved, we will take action against them too,” Ankit Garg, Inspector General of Police Surguja Range, told The Times of India.
Police said the alleged victim was in shock but was able to provide enough details for investigators to make a case.
The Year 11 girl lives 25km from her school, and took computer classes at a private academy nearby, which some of her teachers were aware of, and on November 15 one showed up and offered to take her home, police said.
But instead the teacher took her to a rented house where her school principal, 55, the headmaster and the ranger were waiting, police said.
Police allege the four government employees then took turns raping the girl while filming the act, and blackmailed her with the videos.
The horrific case comes after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor in Kolkata in August sparked protests across India, where there are more than 30,000 recorded rapes every year, or one every 15 minutes.
In March a Spanish travel blogger was gang-raped by seven men and her husband assaulted while camping in a forest in the eastern state of Jharkhand, a popular tourist destination.
In 2018, a 33-year-old Latvian tourist was gang-raped and murdered after travelling to Kerala for a yoga retreat. Her headless corpse was found hanging upside down from a tree in a forest. Police said she had been drugged by her attackers.
Header image credit: Kindel Media (stock image)
