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6 people arrested after Indian teen alleges gang-rape

Indian teenager alleges being gang-raped at a hotel in the country’s west, prompting the arrest of six people.

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Indian Christians and social activists take part in a peace rally and protest against the rape of a nun in the northeastern India city of Allahabad on March 16, 2015 (AFP photo).

A 17-year-old Indian girl has alleged being gang-raped by 10 men at a hotel in the country’s west, prompting the arrest of six people.

Indian police announced the arrests on Tuesday, which they said were made while investigating the alleged August 30 incident, AFP reported.

The alleged victim had traveled from New Delhi to the city of Jaipur after being promised a job there.

"She was then confined to a hotel where 10 people including the manager took turns to rape her. She managed to escape last week and file a complaint in Delhi," said a police officer on condition of anonymity.

"Based on her complaint we have arrested six men and we are studying the CCTV footage from the hotel to nab the rest of the suspects," he said.

India has earned notoriety for its history of violence against women, including frequent cases of rape.

Last week, three men were convicted for the gang-rape of a young Japanese woman in Jaipur and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

In an incident that sent shockwaves throughout the country in 2012, a 23-year-old medical student was brutally assaulted and gang-raped aboard a moving bus before being thrown out onto the street in New Delhi. She later died of her injuries in the hospital.

Indian political and civil society activists take part in a vigil to mark the second anniversary of the fatal gang-rape of a student in New Delhi, at a bus stop in the Munirka area of the Indian capital on December 16, 2014 (AFP photo).

Activists say the rape victims often allegedly receive harsh threats and intimidation from the assailants after the attack, and police often discourage the victims from filing complaints. Such accounts, however, cannot be independently verified.

In May 2014, attackers raped and strangled two teenage sisters in the Uttar Pradesh State in northern India, hanging their bodies from a tree.

In March, a gang of thieves attacked the Jesus and Mary convent school and church in Ranagaht in the Nadia district of West Bengal. A senior nun, who tried to stop the robbery, was assaulted and raped before the gang fled with the funds set aside for renovation work in the convent school.