A 16-year-old girl on Friday accused nine persons of raping her, after a friend misguided her to take a shortcut through a jungle in Dumka, Jharkhand. The incident occurred on March 24. The victim hails from a far-flung area surrounded by jungle in Gopikandar Police Station in Jharkhand.

The incident happened after one of her friends dropped her at Karudih area in Dumka since her hostel was shut due to the lockdown.

The girl then called her father to pick her up from Karudih More. When her father could not reach on time, she called one of her friends to pick her up. She then called up another friend requesting him to drop her to the village.

The friend told her that they should take a short cut through a forest claiming that policemen would stop them since the Central government had already enforced a lockdown in view of the rising cases of coronavirus across the country.

Her friend then stopped near Gadiyapani in the jungle. When the girl asked why he had stopped, the boy told her that he needed to answer nature's call.

In her statement, the girl alleged that after excusing himself, the boy called his friends who took turns to rape the girl. All of them deserted the girl inside the jungle in a critical condition.

When the girl regained consciousness, she managed to reach the main road. "The statement of the girl was taken at a hospital where she is under treatment," a police officer said.

An FIR was lodged at the Gopikandar Police Station. An SIT has been constituted to investigate the case.

(With inputs from Mritunjay Pandey in Dumka)