Police hunt two more suspects after woman held for three weeks and raped by gang near Buddhist site at Bodh Gaya, Bihar state

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

Police in India arrested three people for allegedly gang-raping a 22-year-old Japanese research academic near a Buddhist pilgrimage centre in eastern India, officials said on Friday.

Police were looking for two more suspects who also allegedly kept the Japanese woman as a hostage for nearly three weeks in a village near Bodh Gaya, a town 80 miles south of Patna, the capital of Bihar state, officer Akhilesh Singh said.

The woman managed to escape on 26 December and reached her base at Kolkata, where she filed a police complaint. She has been studying life in rural India for some time, Singh said.

A Kolkata-based tourist guide had taken the Japanese woman to Bodh Gaya to show her the Buddhist pilgrimage centre where Gautama Buddha is said to have obtained enlightenment under a tree. He was joined by four others in keeping her in captivity and raping her, police said.

Two of the arrests were made in the area on Friday and one took place earlier this week in Kolkata, police added.

India has a long history of tolerance of sexual violence, but a series of high-profile rape cases have triggered strong public outrage in recent years, leading to tougher anti-rape laws.

India has doubled prison terms for rapists to 20 years and criminalised voyeurism, stalking and the trafficking of women.

The law also makes it a crime for police officers to refuse to open cases when complaints are made.