jaipur

Updated: Sep 11, 2019 21:44 IST

A 15-year-old girl on her way to a temple with her two friends in central Rajasthan was abducted, thrashed and raped by three men, police said on Wednesday.

She was rescued after one of her friends ran back to the market some distance away and got some help. The three suspects escaped, leaving the terrified teenager behind.

But the girl was so traumatised that she also tried to escape the man who rescued her. She ran without clothes for nearly half-a-kilometre. When she eventually stopped, the man then gave her his clothes to cover herself and took her home.

Police said the three men had been arrested. Two of them, Raju Kahar and Kailash Kahar, are in their mid-twenties. Narayan Gurjar, the third suspect, is 40.

The incident took place on Monday evening in Bhilwara district, 250 km south of Rajasthan capital Jaipur.

Bhilwara district police chief Harendra Mahwar said the girl and her two friends were going to a temple when the three suspects, who were consuming liquor on the roadside, saw them and went after them.

“While her friends managed to escape the three, the teenage girl was abducted by the accused and forcibly taken to an isolated place where she was raped,” Harendra Mahwar said.

One of the male friends who managed to escape ran towards the market area and sought help from a shopkeeper identified as Chand Khan Rangrez and told him about the incident.

“I was sitting at my shop on Monday evening when one boy, who looked scared, approached me. The boy said that when he was going with his two friends, three men stopped him on Tehnal road. They snatched his bike, abducted his minor friend, took her to isolate place and are raping her,” said Rangrez.

Rangrez told HT that he picked up his bike to help the girl. When he reached the spot, he saw three people beating the girl.

“Seeing me approach them, the accused fled... The girl was so terrified that she ran without clothes for more than half-a-kilometre. I tried to convince her that I am here to help but she didn’t believe me. But a few minutes later, she seemed to trust me and stopped... I gave my clothes to her,” Rangrez said.

She headed back to town with him but insisted that they do not go to a hospital, but home. The girl told Rangrez that her father was unwell.

When her parents heard her horrific details, they promptly decided to file a police complaint.

A case was lodged under law to penalise sexual offences against children, atrocity against scheduled castes and penal code. District police chief Harendra Mahwar said the statements of the rape survivor, Rangrez and her friends had been recorded,

Deputy superintendent of police Bharat Singh, who is investigating the case, said the three accused were residents of Shahpura block 60 km away.

At the spot where the girl was raped, Bharat Singh said they had found “broken pieces of bangles, liquor bottles and blood stains from the spot”.

“The clothes of the victim has also been recovered,” Bharat Singh said. The officer said the case was being investigated under case officer scheme under which the probe will be fast tracked.

A doctor, who conducted the girl’s medical examination, said there were scratch marks all over her body.