Kushinagar, UP:

A 16-year-old girl was allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped in a moving vehicle in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar earlier this month, police said. Three men, all neighbours of the victim, were arrested on Monday.

According to the police, the incident took place on September 9 when the accused called the minor girl to clean a cow shelter. The victim wrote in her police complaint that the accused threatened her with a knife and took her to a shanty before forcing himself upon her.

Later, two of his associates reached the spot, kidnapped her, and took turns to rape her in a moving vehicle. The three accused then dumped her outside the cow shelter. The girl, after regaining consciousness, managed to reach home and narrated her ordeal to her parents. 

She claimed in her complaint that Kaptanganj police station did not register an FIR initially. An official complaint was registered only after the victim and her family reached out to senior officers for help.

“A case has been registered in the case under relevant sections and three accused have been arrested and sent to jail. Advance legal action is being taken,” the Kushinagar district police said in a statement.