When several rabbis and ultra-Orthodox men were accused in October of being a part of a ring that kidnapped and tortured Jewish husbands who refused to grant divorces to their wives, the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey said the number of victims might run into the dozens.

But the authorities would not discuss any of those cases. Initially, the charges against the accused kidnappers were based only on an F.B.I. operation involving an undercover agent who posed as a wife wanting to leave a deteriorating marriage. In headline-grabbing detail, court papers described how the agent infiltrated a world of “special rabbis” willing to authorize the torture of recalcitrant husbands until they agreed to a divorce, which under Jewish law cannot occur without the man’s consent.

On Thursday afternoon, after months of investigation, an indictment was unsealed in Trenton that bluntly detailed three actual kidnappings that preceded the operation. The indictment charges five men, including the accused ringleader who was arrested after the operation, Mendel Epstein, of Brooklyn. Among the other defendants are one of his sons, David Epstein; a rabbi who presides over a yeshiva in Monsey, N.Y., Martin Wolmark; and two other men.

The first kidnapping cited in the indictment occurred in November 2009. According to court papers filed by prosecutors, the victim was forced into a van in a parking lot in Lakewood, N.J., where he was bound with duct tape and zip ties. The victim, who is not identified in court papers, had his genitals shocked with a stun gun; a rabbi holding a video camera was in the front seat of the van and directed the man to say the words necessary for a divorce to go forward, according to court papers.