In a gruesome incident that came to light, the Andhra Pradesh police on Thursday arrested five minor boys from Punganur town in Chittoor district, for allegedly raping a 12-year old girl over the last two months.
The boys were all aged 16 or 17 and reportedly lived near the girl's house. They were nabbed by the police and shifted to a juvenile home after being produced in front of a magistrate.
“The boys had first trapped the girl in their neighbourhood by offering her chocolates nearly two months ago and allegedly raped her. Subsequently, they repeated the offence several times by threatening that they would kill her,if she revealed the crime to anybody. We have booked cases under Section 376 (Rape) of Indian Penal Code, besides relevant sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act," Punganur inspector of police P Sainath told one media outlet.
After being allegedly raped for two months, the girl told her mother what had happened.
Following this, angry locals caught the minor boys and dragged them out of their houses, before reportedly thrashing them and handing them over to the police.
The police also said that the boys were addicted to watching porn on their mobile phones.
Andhra has witnessed a slew of rape cases over the last two months.
Just earlier this month, the Srikalahasthi Rural police in Chittoor district arrested a 65-year-old man on charges of raping two minor girls.
The accused was identified as Subbaiah Naidu, a labourer. The victims were aged 5 and 7.
This came a day after it was reported that a 14-year-old minor girl was allegedly repeatedly raped and impregnated in a town in Guntur district.
The incident came to light when the girl and her family lodged a complaint with the Dachepalli police and the accused was identified as 43-year-old Mahbub Vali, a local TDP leader.
This was the second such incident to be reported from Dachepalli, with the first one triggering protests across the state.
Calling for publicly hanging the rapists, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrbabau Naidu had also said that his government would be tough in dealing with such criminals.
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