NEW DELHI, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Police in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand Saturday said they have arrested 16 people in connection with the recent gangrape of a tribal girl.
"Some 16 youths have been arrested in the case. Seven of them gangraped the girl while the remaining were present at the crime spot," a senior police official said.
The incident took place Wednesday night when the girl and her boyfriend was travelling on a bike and sexually assaulted by a group of men in Dumka, 300 km from state capital Ranchi.
The youths forcibly took away her mobile phone and demanded money from the couple. When they refused, the accused took them to a desolate place and raped them, while other men also joined.
"The girl has been admitted to Dumka Sadar hospital and her condition is reportedly stable and out of danger," Dumka's police chief Mayur Patel Kanhiya Lal told the media.
Sexual assaults on women are common in India, despite the government toughening laws against such crimes after the 2012 fatal and brutal gangrape of a medical student on a bus in Delhi.
