The nation called her 'Nirbhaya'. Enraged citizens stepped out of their comfortable lives to protest demanding justice for her.

What changed?

NOTHING.

Nearly six years since Nirbhaya, that was apparently the gang-rape case that jolted the nation, the number of sexual crimes against women has only increased.

Yesterday, Chhattisgarh Police rescued two minor girls from state's Koriya district confined by nine men for over a fortnight. The girls, aged 17 and 15, were raped multiple times.

The girls were rescued on March 19 from an area near Madhya Pradesh's Bijuri railway station.

The main accused, identified as Abhijeet Pal alias Pinku (20), took the girls, who hail from Jhagrakhand area in Koriya, a district near the Chhattisgarh-Madhya Pradesh border, to a place in Khongapani and raped them.

One of the two girls had an affair with Pal, police said. The girl's friend accompanied her. Pal took the minor girl with him saying they would get married.

On March 4, the main accused Abhijeet Pal took one of victims, with whom he was having an affair, on the pretext of marrying her. - Nivedita Sharma, Koriya Additional Superintendent of Police

Pal and his friends repeatedly raped the minors after confining them in two different villages.

The families of the victim filed a complaint on March 18 morning. The police raided a raided a place near Bijuri railway station early morning on March 19 and rescued the girls.

Seven of the nine accused were arrested during the rescue, Sharma said.

They were identified as Ashraf Ali (26), Manoj Kumar (28), Hemraj Panika (20), Avinash (28), Jitendra Kumar Rai (26) and Rakesh Kumar Navait (23) apart from Pal, she said.

Search is on for the absconding two criminals.

The arrested were booked on charges of gangrape, kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel her to marry, wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement of the IPC and relevant provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.