Five women working for a Christian missionary group were abducted and gang-raped in Jharkhand by men who filmed their crime, police said on June 22, in the latest horrific sex assault in the country.
The victims were abducted while they were performing a street play to raise awareness of human trafficking in the Khunti district.
The unidentified assailants, who raped the women at gunpoint, video recorded their actions.
The women worked for the non-governmental organisation Asha Kiran which is supported by a local Christian missionary group, police officer Rajesh Prasad told AFP.
The police are questioning several people, including supporters of the anti-establishment Pathalgadi movement, he added.
A. V. Homkar, another police officer, said the women were accompanied by four men and two nuns as they performed the play when at least six armed men attacked them.
The attackers beat the male members of the team and forced the five women into a car, took them to a nearby forest and raped them for three hours before releasing them, said Homkar.
"We have dedicated three teams of police to interrogate several people," he added.
Prasad said the women had undergone medical tests and that police were awaiting the results.
However, the nationalities of the victims have not yet been revealed.
"We are still processing what has happened," said Rajiv Ranjan Sinha of the Jharkhand Anti-Trafficking Network.
"This is the first time field workers have been targeted and it is both surprising and shocking. It is now going to become more difficult to work on this issue," he added.
