BANGALORE: Four men, including an engineering student, were on Tuesday arrested for allegedly raping a woman and throwing her off the second floor of a lodge in HSR Layout on Saturday night.

But Bahubali Subash, Bahubali Shankarappa, Vinod and Manjunath , all 23, have a different story to tell police. They claim they had hired the survivor, reportedly a commercial sex worker from Mumbai, but hadn't raped her; police are not convinced.

Subash and Shankarappa are cousins and work as clinical trial volunteers for medical establishments. Manjunath is a salesman with a motorcycle showroom, while Vinod is a II year engineering student.

In their confession, the men said they browsed the internet and found her agent's contact number. The agent told them the woman would be waiting for them at Bellandur. Subash picked her up on his two-wheeler and took her to his house in Whitefield.

Subash was with the woman when the other three walked into the room. She backtracked and refused to entertain them, leading to an argument. Finally, they agreed to drop her back and left the house. While the woman rode pillion on one bike, the other three followed on another motorbike. But during the journey, the woman jumped off the bike and ran into a building, they claimed.

"The men said the woman got off the bike for no reason and ran, and started verbally abusing them. The men chased her and in the melee, pushed her off the building," HSR Layout police officers said.

The men were tracked down using the mobile numbers they had used to call the survivor and her agent. A manhunt was launched to trace the agent.

Officers said they'd ask for police custody of these men in court on Wednesday.

"We have to verify the men's claims that they didn't rape the woman. She hasn't given any statement yet, making things difficult. But the attempt to murder charge stands against them as they pushed the woman off the building, and there was a criminal motive," said KV Sharat Chandra, joint commissioner of police, law and order (east).

The woman told doctors at Vani Vilas Hospital , where she was taken by passersby, that she was raped by four men at a lodge.

