NEW DELHI- Two teenage girls from Chhattisgarh’s Koriya district wereallegedly confined and raped by nine men for over a fortnight, police saidon Tuesday.

The girls, aged 17 and 15 years, were rescued by the police yesterday froma spot near Bijuri railway station in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, theysaid. The victims belong to Jhagrakhand area in Koriya located on theborder of Chhattisgarh and MP, they added.

Koriya Additional Superintendent of Police Nivedita Sharma said, “On March4, the main accused Abhijeet Pal alias Pinku (20) took one of victims, withwhom he was having an affair, on the pretext of marrying her. A friend ofthe victim accompanied them.” Sharma said Pal, a native of Khongapanivillage of Jhagrakhand, took the two minor girls to a place in Khongapaniand raped them.

“Later, Pal and eight of his friends repeatedly raped the two afterconfining them in Ledri and Bijuri villages,” she said.

Officials said a complaint was filed by the victims’ families on themorning of March 18. The ASP said that a police team, on the basis of atip-off, raided a place near Bijuri railway station in the early hoursyesterday and rescued the girls. Seven of the nine accused were arrestedduring the rescue, Sharma said. They were identified as Ashraf Ali (26),Manoj Kumar (28), Hemraj Panika (20), Avinash (28), Jitendra Kumar Rai (26)and Rakesh Kumar Navait (23) apart from Pal, she said. A manhunt wasunderway for two more people, she said.

They were booked on charges of gangrape, kidnapping, abducting or inducingwoman to compel her to marry, wrongfully concealing or keeping inconfinement of the IPC and relevant provisions of the Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the ASP added. – Agencies