Tour guides Sajid and Jawed Khan accused of confining and repeatedly raping woman near Buddhist site of Bodh Gaya

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Police in India have arrested two brothers and three other men over the kidnap and rape a Japanese student over three weeks near a Buddhist pilgrimage site.

The 22-year-old was held hostage at gunpoint in a secluded basement close to Bodh Gaya in the east of India, a town 80 miles south of Patna in Bihar state, officials said.

“When her health condition deteriorated due to repeated rape and poor living conditions, she was brought to Gaya [town] for medical treatment on 20 December,” a police officer who is part of the investigation told Agence France-Presse.

But the woman escaped and got in touch with other Japanese tourists who helped her contact their country’s consulate in the nearby city of Kolkata, the officer said.

Tour guides Sajid Khan, 32, and his brother Jawed, 25, were arrested on Friday, the deputy superintendent Alok Kumar Singh said.

“We have arrested the duo for confining and raping the Japanese student,” Singh told AFP.

On Sunday Kolkata joint police commissioner Pallab Kanti Ghosh said three other men had been arrested on suspicion of extorting money from the victim and then handing her over to the alleged rapists.

“We have arrested three people who befriended the victim in Kolkata. They have been charged with common conspiracy and intention to kidnap and rape,” the commissioner said.

The woman, a university student, travelled to Gaya from Kolkata. It is thought she had been studying life in rural India for some time.

Bodh Gaya is considered to be one of Buddhism’s most holy sites, being home to one of the earliest Buddhist temples still standing in India. Gautama Buddha is said to have achieved enlightenment there, under a tree.

Indian officials have come under intense scrutiny over the country’s efforts to curb violence against women, particularly after international outcry following the fatal gang rape of a medical student in Delhi in 2012. Since then, several attacks on foreign women have been reported, leading to a dip in tourist numbers in the country.

Last January, a 51-year-old Danish tourist was robbed and gang raped at knifepoint in Delhi.

In 2013, a Swiss cyclist holidaying in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh was robbed and gang raped by five men, all of whom were later sentenced to life in prison.